


Ghosts of Saltmarsh

by RaphaelComet



Series: D&D: Forgotten Realms [2]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: 5e, Dungeons & Dragons Campaign, Faerûn, Forgotten Realms - Freeform, Gen, OSF, Order of the Sacred Fire, Saltmarsh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:22:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 25,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26201086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RaphaelComet/pseuds/RaphaelComet
Summary: A brief visit home proves to more than Cassidy bargained for. Cassidy Seabreeze, a member of the Order of Sacred Fire’s Scout Regiment, decides to visit her home of Saltmarsh after being away for a few years. She reunites with familiar faces, meets new ones, and goes on an adventure that takes her to new locales in her old hometown.
Relationships: Cassidy Seabreeze & Octavious Fireborn
Series: D&D: Forgotten Realms [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1819465





	1. Home, Sweet Home

**Author's Note:**

> A story chronicling a D&D campaign as told from the perspective of the character I played, Cassidy Seabreeze. Unfortunately, we didn’t finish this campaign so I had to wrap up the ending on my own. The DM was a friend of mine (Eric) and along with myself, there were three other main players (Tanner, Bell, and Justin). The story takes place in Faerun.
> 
> Below shows whose characters belonged to who:  
>  **Myself** : Cassidy  
>  **Tanner** : Destan  
>  **Bell** : Octavious  
>  **Justin 2** : Riardon

It had been many years since I had last smelled the familiar aroma of ocean breeze and salted fish. Such scents were well known to me while growing up in the town of Saltmarsh, a small fishing village on the coast. Unfortunately, I didn’t intend for my brief visit to see my hometown once more to become so… complicated.

My name is Cassidy Seabreeze and I once called Saltmarsh my home. I left the town a long time ago to forge my own path, unable to find a place there that suited me. After saying goodbye to my father, I left to seek opportunities in the bustling city of Neverwinter to the north. There, I joined up with an organization called the Order of the Sacred Fire, or OSF. They were a para-military group with the sole focus of protecting the world at large from evil. A motley bunch with a particular fondness for fire. Anyway, I remained a member of their organization for many years and rose through the ranks.

I started out as a member of their marine regiment, stationed on ships to protect them during transit and while they were abroad at foreign ports. I already had experience with amphibious combat from my old job, so I fit right in. I remained with the unit for a good number of years, eventually earning the rank of Senior Sergeant. When it was time for a promotion, I turned it down, saying I didn’t want to be in an officer’s leadership position. I didn’t want to be in-charge of large numbers of knights and be responsible for their well-being. Instead, I just wanted to do my job and only worry about myself. My superiors were disappointed but understanding. They didn’t want to put someone into a position that they didn’t want to be in. Taking advantage of a member’s full potential was one of the OSF’s strong suits.

Needing to free up my position for someone new to fill and grow in, my superiors negotiated with me and found me a new position elsewhere within the Order. Due to my excellent record and years of distinguished service, they promoted me to the rank of Specialist and reassigned me to the scout regiment. There, I was free to act as an independent member, only having to report to the regiment commander every so often. My job then was to travel and scout the world, taking out threats as I encountered them and collect intelligence to send back to the Order. It was a perfect fit for me, and I quickly fell in love with my job as a member of the scout regiment.

I had just finished up official OSF business at the liaison office in Neverwinter, the very same one where I first heard of the OSF. I hadn’t been that close to home in a while, so I figured to pay my father a visit since I was around. He was the only family I had, and I was sure he missed me. Since my mother had passed away and my departure from his side, he didn’t have much left to keep him company. You see, he was an elf yet my mother was a human, so her longevity was far less than his own, and mine as well. Since he’d probably outlive me, I thought it was a good idea to pay him a visit whenever I could afford to.

#

In the distance, my childhood home came into view as I walked down a path much traveled in my youth. Even though it had been more than a decade, things looked more or less the same. As I drew nearer to Saltmarsh, things began to look more differently yet still recognizable. I entered town and began heading towards my father’s house until an unexpected person crossed my path.

Before I knew it, a young man came waltzing up out of nowhere and began talking to me. He was a red tiefling with dark, long hair and the scent of alcohol on his breath. He knew my name, and he was quite happy and surprised to see me. I was confused at first, but then it started to make sense to me. The more I looked at the boy, the more I began to recognize him. The last time I had seen him was when he was yet a young boy, and his name was Octavious.

Our initial meeting was quite the tragic tale. It happened long ago when I still lived in Saltmarsh with my father. At the time, I was a member of the local marine regiment. I was assisting the City Watch on a mission to stop a slaver who was conducting business in the area. The Captain of the City Watch, Eliander Fireborn, organized a raid to storm the slaver’s ship when it was off the coast. Him and I, along with a few other watchmen and marines, stormed the slaver’s ship and managed to secure it before the head of the operation got away.

Among the slaves onboard the ship was a group of children who were all orphans; Octavious was one of them. With nowhere to go, Eliander adopted them and raised them as his own. Since that day, Octavious seemed to take a liking to me after seeing me amongst those who had saved him. He used to follow me around town when I was off-duty and even sometimes while I was working. It was kind of cute, and he was always full of energy.

Now Octavious was all grown-up, perhaps in his mid-twenties. I guess it was easier for him to recognize me, since I more or less looked the same, despite the lengthy time we had been apart. Once I had remembered who he was, I greeted him and told him how nice it was to see him again. Wanting to catch up on things, Octavious suggested going to the tavern for a drink so we could chat.

I hadn’t visited my father yet, but I figured he was still busy working the fish taco stand. After catching up with Octavious, I figured I’d pay him a visit. As far back as I could remember, he and my mother ran the well-known eatery. My mother did all the cooking while my father did all the fishing. He’d wake up early and go out on the water, using his trusty bow to catch some fish. When my mother died, he continued to run the stand on his own, but eventually, he hired someone to help him man it.

Since it was still early in the day, I followed Octavious to the local tavern which was called the Snapping Line. When we entered, we were greeted by the barmaid, a girl named Merandi, who instantly recognized Octavious. I supposed he was a regular there based on the way they were talking to each other. After exchanging some brief words, Octavious went over to an empty table, and I followed after him. Merandi brought over a couple of drinks while Octavious and I caught up on life. The ale the tavern served had a unique taste to it, one that instantly reminded me of Saltmarsh.

During our chat, Octavious spotted a couple of out of place gentlemen sitting nearby at another table. They seemed to be from out of town, and Octavious was curious to learn more about them. Octavious then shouted over towards them to come join him and me at our table. The two men looked over their shoulders at Octavious with a confused expression. Octavious continued to heckle them, so they eventually relented and came over to see what he wanted. I wanted to calm him down and not let him bother the other patrons, but Octavious was a bit rowdier than I had expected.

The two men that Octavious were disturbing came over and sat down with us. One of them was a pale-skinned water genasi with a sort of bluish tint to his skin. His name was Destan Fjord. The other person was a wood elf by the name of Riardon Shahalie. The two of them were traveling companions who happened to be passing through town.

While we were all talking around the table, a man pushing a wheelbarrow came into the tavern. The wheelbarrow was full of fruit, and the man was handing it all out to the patrons. The haul of fish was a bit light that day, so one of the town’s wealthy merchants wanted to help out by passing out excess stock. Octavious recognized the man and the person he worked for, giving a slight grimace. I was curious but didn’t push the matter with him. After the patrons had all gotten some fruit, the man with the wheelbarrow left the tavern.

Shortly after we had resumed our social banter, we were yet again interrupted by a commotion occurring outside. We heard the shrill sound of a City Watch whistle being blown, something I was familiar with. The others, including Octavious, were curious to see what was going on and got up from their seats. I reluctantly followed after them as they made their way outside. Just as we left the tavern, we saw Captain Eliander and a few other watchmen on horseback heading out of the city.

Octavious was curious to see where his adoptive father was going, so he ran off in the direction they went. I followed after him as did Riardon and Destan for some reason. By the time we reached the front gate, the men on horseback had easily traveled a good distance away from us; there was no way we were able to catch them on foot. I told Octavious it was no use and he ceased his pursuit, then turning his attention to the watchman stationed at the gate.

Octavious asked the watchman if he knew where his father was going, but the watchman wasn’t sure. Instead, he told Octavious not to worry about it, and if he wanted something to do, he could check the job postings on the nearby bulletin board. Octavious said he just might, so I followed him over as he went to check it out. Riardon and Destan continued to follow us, also curious about the possibility of potential work. I had no use for the job postings since I was just visiting, but it was nice to see Octavious again, so I continued to follow him.

Looking at the bulletin board, Octavious spotted one job that interested him. It involved a bunch of missing people and a supposedly haunted mansion. He recalled a local drunkard telling ghost stories about the mansion and such, so he figured he might have more information about it. I wasn’t in any rush or had anything pressing to do, so I decided to accompany Octavious on his little adventure. Someone had to make sure he didn’t get hurt or into any trouble. Riardon and Destan also wanted to tag along, so we all followed Octavious as he began heading towards the docks.

The man we were looking for was a town drunk nicknamed Stumpy, at least, by Octavious anyway. When we arrived at the docks, Octavious easily spotted Stumpy and went over to him, exchanging a few words. Stumpy then got distracted by his crippling alcoholism and said he wanted a drink, refusing to continue until he had one. Octavious suggested heading back to the tavern, so we all went back there to satiate his addiction.

We arrived back at the Snapping Line and found ourselves a table. After Stumpy had his drink, which consisted of a small keg of ale, he began telling us about the haunted mansion. It was more of a fable than anything, but he at least knew of the mansion’s location and was willing to lead us there. The other patrons in the tavern were also curious about the mansion and were discretely listening in on Stumpy’s tales.

I, on the other hand, wasn’t as impressed. I had been all over the place and seen all sorts of things in my tenure as a member of the OSF’s Recon Regiment. Stumpy’s over-exaggerated tales seemed to be just that- pure fiction. Whatever was behind the missing travelers, it was most likely something that could be explained by simple investigation. One would think that the City Watch would’ve looked into it already, but I guess things hadn’t changed all that much in that regard. Instead of trying to protect the citizens of Saltmarsh, they were probably still shaking down honest-working people and serving as the King’s personal lapdogs.

Once Stumpy had his fill of drink, he offered to lead us to the mansion when we were ready. Octavious said he was ready to go if we all were, and I gave him a nod. In case things got dangerous, I needed to be there to look after him; however, he’d fared well enough without me, so I guess he was capable of taking care of himself. I was ready to go as were Riardon and Destan, so we all followed Stumpy out of the tavern.

During the hike to the mansion, Stumpy remained out front with his small keg of ale under his arm. I stood by Octavious, but just far enough behind him to remain out of his sight. I didn’t want him to catch me checking him out and seeing how much he had grown. We continued through the forest until we finally reached our destination.


	2. The Haunted House

When we got to the mansion, Stumpy had already emptied his keg and was in no condition to continue on. He bid us farewell and drunkenly turned around, making his way back to town. He didn’t get far as he stumbled off the path into a nearby bush, having passed out from all the alcohol in his system. Octavious wanted to help him out, but we had a job to do and he was probably going to be fine where he was.

Returning our focus to the mansion, we approached the front of the foreboding building. It was rundown and in a state of disrepair, seemingly forgotten and unoccupied by the looks of things. Off to the side, we noticed a giant weasel burrow obscured by some foliage, and Riardon went over to investigate it. Unfortunately, he got too close and caused the burrow’s owner to attack us. Once the fighting started, three more giant weasels came out from the brush and attacked us as well. I made sure to keep an eye on Octavious during the engagement, but he seemed to be handling himself all right. After a brief skirmish, the weasels were defeated with the group sustaining minor injuries. I figured I could make use of their pelts, so I piled the bodies off to the side to take back with us later.

We moved to the front porch of the mansion and checked the door. It was unlocked, so we carefully opened it up and peered inside, making sure to keep alert for any hostile threats. If people were going missing around this area, we had to be on guard. Those weasels surely weren’t the cause of the disappearances, so whatever was causing them was still around. There were no immediate signs of life and everything was quiet so far, so we entered the mansion and began looking around.

There were several hallways that branched off from the main foyer as well as a staircase leading up to the second floor. Upon closer inspection, I noticed a couple sets of footprints on the ground. The dust had been disturbed which caused footprints to be left behind. We followed one of them into a hallway and entered a room, finding nothing but naturally occurring mushrooms in there. I couldn’t immediately identify what kind they were, but they didn’t look poisonous at least. I harvested a few of the brown mushrooms and put them in my pack. After that, we moved on to a different hallway and went into another room.

This time, Riardon took the lead, but once he stepped foot into the room, a swarm of spiders came raining down on him from above. The spiders crawled all over him, causing him to freak out as they began biting him. I took one of my arrows and started swatting at them to help get them off him. As Destan tried to help, some spiders jumped on him and began biting him as well. It took a while, but we managed to kill all the spiders that were attacking us. After the two were saved from the spider swarm, we continued into the room to look around. While Riardon was searching around the fireplace within the room, he found a hidden lockbox behind a strange stone that was part of it. I don’t remember what was inside it, but it probably wasn’t that interesting.

Riardon and Destan were looking pretty bad after their encounter with the swarm of spiders. They had bites all over them which were really agitating to them. Seeing as they couldn’t continue without being in a lot of pain and discomfort, we decided to head back to town to rest up. It wasn’t like we were in any rush to clear the mansion, so after they had healed up, we’d return to finish the job.

We made our way back to the front of the mansion and began heading down the path back to town. On the way out, I grabbed two of the dead weasels and carried them over my shoulders. I was mostly interested in their pelts, so when I got back to town, I was going to have someone skin and clean them up for me. When we left the mansion, we didn’t see Stumpy anywhere, so we assumed he’d made his way back home.

The trip to town was uneventful, and when we got back, we decided to grab a quick drink at the tavern. When we entered, the patrons who knew about us going up to the haunted mansion were surprised to see us back already. They murmured amongst themselves, wondering what unspeakable horrors we might’ve faced or if Stumpy’s stories were really true. We just told everyone that we were still exploring the mansion and hadn’t encountered anything out of the ordinary, except for some giant weasels and spiders. They were all disappointed at that but continued to speculate about what else was hiding in the haunted mansion. We just ignored the gossip and sat down to have our drink. Thankfully, Stumpy had made it back safe and sound and was already up to his usual antics. After having our drink at the tavern, we went our separate ways. We planned to meet up the next morning at the Snapping Line tavern again to continue where we had left off.

After breaking away from the group, I took the two dead giant weasels I had been carrying to a local tanner. I handed them over and told him I just wanted the pelts cleaned and tanned. As payment, I offered to let him keep everything else. He wasn’t much of a butcher, but he accepted the deal anyway. It was a win-win for the both of us, actually. The tanner got to sell the meat and remnants of the weasels to the butcher in exchange for the pelts, and I got to keep the pelts after the tanner got them ready for me. He said it’d take a couple of days to finish, so I thanked him and left to head home finally.

I still hadn’t seen my father yet, so I didn’t let any distractions get in my way. It was already evening, so I figured he was already home after having closed up the taco stand for the day. I knocked on the door, and when he finally answered, I gave him a big hug. He was quite surprised to see me and hugged me back, saying how nice it was to see me again. He ushered me inside and we sat down at the dining room table together. I then began to regale him with what I had been up to since our last meeting, which had been at least a couple years. I had sent him letters with updates in the meantime, but I haven’t seen him face-to-face in a while. We spent the rest of the evening talking and catching up before I finally decided to call it a night.

I told my father I’d be around for a few days then headed off to my bedroom to get some sleep. It was still the same, everything just as I had last left it. I got ready for sleep then moseyed over to bed, laying down and resting my head on my pillow. Not before long, I was drifting off to a peaceful slumber.

#

The next morning, I got up and prepared for whatever the day had in store for me. When I finally left my bedroom after getting ready, the house was quiet and still. Father was probably already up and out on the water fishing. I quickly grabbed a quick bite to eat in the kitchen then left for the tavern. Hopefully Riardon’s and Destan’s injuries had been taken care of and they were back to normal.

When I got there, everyone was already seated around a table and talking amongst themselves. They looked to be in high spirits, so I assumed they were healthy and able to continue with the mansion job. I made my way over and stood by their table, standing next to Octavious as I greeted the group. They all returned the greeting then stood up, ready to begin the day.

Before leaving town, they wanted to visit a general store to buy a few things, so we headed on over to a shop called Winston’s Store which was nearby. Octavious and I were familiar with the place, its owner notorious for being a bit underhanded in his business dealings. The owner, a man unsurprisingly named Winston, was also a Traditionalist, which was something that Octavious wasn’t particularly fond of.

Immediately upon entering Winston’s shop, he tried to pull one over on us, but we weren’t having any of it. We were in need of some healing supplies and needed to buy some Potions of Healing. Unfortunately, the price was too steep for our wallets, so we ended up having to resort to bartering instead. In exchange for taking out a small camp of goblins and retrieving any sellable goods, he agreed to give us three Potions of Healing. The goblin camp had been harassing passing travelers which was bad for business. The City Watch hadn’t gotten around to the issue, so he wanted us to take care of it instead. Since we were in no rush to finish the mansion job and in need of those potions, we took the offer and agreed to quell the goblin nuisance. I figured we might as well if the goblins were a threat to passing travelers. After getting the location of the goblin camp from Winston, Destan wanted to take care of a bit of business before we left the shop. He sold some Alchemist Dust he found at the mansion, getting around 16gp for it. Once that was taken care of, we headed out to deal with the goblin problem.

It seemed like there were more threats to Saltmarsh that were being neglected by the City Watch than I thought. Even if they were undermanned, taking care of a small goblin encampment or investigating an abandoned mansion didn’t require that much time or manpower. I just grimaced as we walked along, trying my best to keep my frustration to myself.

After a short hike through the surrounding countryside, we spotted the goblin camp in the distance. Before we moved in for the kill, the four of us talked a bit of strategy to make sure things went smoothly. The plan was for Riardon and Octavious to act as a distraction to lure in the goblins into a more concentrated group. Then Destan and I would attack from afar while the other two engaged them up close. I was a bit worried about Octavious being on the frontlines, but he wasn’t alone and I’d make sure to keep goblins off his flank.

Once we had the details of our plan figured out, we moved into position and began our attack. The fight started off well enough as we engaged the goblins in combat. One of them got lucky and hit me with one of their measly arrows. The injury wasn’t serious, but it still hurt quite a bit. Luckily, I returned the gesture in kind and fired an arrow of my own back at it, taking it out in a single shot. After the main group of goblins were taken out, the last two survivors turned tail and began to run away. I wasn’t about to let them get away, so I fired off a couple more arrows and took them both out before they could escape. I didn’t need them running off to potentially bring back reinforcements at a later time. Once the area was secure, we took some time to look around the camp.

While the others were gathering supplies to bring back to Winston’s Store, I patched up my wound and recovered my arrows. The goblins themselves didn’t have anything worth taking, so I left the looting up to the others if they wanted. After the group had gathered what they could, consisting mostly of mundane items and clothing that they placed into crates, we made our way back to town.

Arriving back at Winston’s Store, we entered the establishment and dropped the crates down in front of the counter, getting right down to business. Right away, Winston tried to swindle us using his silver-tongue, but Riardon and I caught on to what he was doing and made him pay dearly for it. We negotiated with him, and he ended up giving us four Potions of Healing and five platinum coins for the goods and services we provided him. We divvied out the potions and coin amongst ourselves then left the store, splitting up for the remainder of the day until meeting up at the tavern the next morning.

I still had my injury from earlier to tend to, so I went back home to properly clean and dress the wound. When I got back to the house, it was still just as quiet and empty as I had left it when I headed out that morning. Father was probably at the taco stand serving up some fish tacos. Perhaps I’d pay him a visit to see if the tacos were still as good as I remembered, but for the time being, I just wanted to rest.

#

Once again, I met up with the others at the Snapping Line after leaving the house in the morning. Hopefully there wouldn’t be any more distractions so we could finish what we started two days ago. We were all in good health and had the necessary supplies to carry out our mission. When I got there, I met up with the rest of the group and joined them for breakfast. I had already eaten, so I just socialized while they had a quick bite to eat. After everyone had some food and drink in their bellies, we left the tavern and began heading towards the town’s front gate.

As we approached the front gate, Claudius, the watchmen we met a couple days ago and the same one who told us about the job board, called out to us. Hearing him trying to get our attention, we went over to him to see what he wanted. He asked us how things with the haunted mansion were going, but there really wasn’t much to tell. After giving him an update, he mentioned that another issue had been brought to him regarding the haunted mansion.

There was a couple whose son, a young man named Marcus, had gone missing and hadn’t been seen for roughly two weeks. They told him that he had spent his entire savings to go off adventuring on his own, purchasing a set of armor and a sword. The last reported sighting of Marcus was near the haunted mansion, so if we were going back there, he wanted us to keep an eye out for him. We told him we’d do so then continued on our way, heading back to the mansion to hopefully finish the job.

When we arrived at the mansion, nothing had changed. The two remaining dead weasels from a couple days ago were still there, though looking a bit more decomposed and rottener. I thought to myself that I’d just leave them there and forget collecting their pelts. The meat was already bad and I didn’t feel like hauling the carcasses back into town.

The front door to the mansion was still open, so we headed inside and continued where we had left off. I drew my bow and led the way again, an arrow nocked and ready to be loosed. I kept Riardon nearby so he could open the doors for me; it was rather hard opening doors with my hands occupied. We went into another unexplored hallway and found an old library of sorts in a room. There wasn’t much left there except a pile of books laying messily in a corner. Destan was curious and went over to begin rifling through the pile, wondering if there was anything interesting left. Besides the dirty pile of books, there wasn’t much else in the room we were in, so we moved on.

Going into another room in the hallway, we found an office with a desk in it. There was also another fireplace there, similar to other ones in previous rooms we had already gone through. Octavious meandered over to the fireplace and crouched down to look up the chimney, but he only got a face-full of soot.

While Octavious was doing that, Riardon and I were checking out the desk. The drawer was locked, and I tried to get it open but to no avail. Riardon then gave it a shot and managed to get it open using brute force. As he was looking through it, he stumbled upon a secret compartment and found two Potions of Healing. If only we had found them earlier, we could’ve continued to clear the mansion and not have to do business with Winston. But oh well. At least the goblins we took out wouldn’t be harassing any more people. Riardon kept one of the potions for himself and gave the other to me.

After putting the potion into my pack, I noticed Octavious’ filthy face and went over to him. I used my sleeve and began to wipe away the soot on his cheek, but he tensed up and promptly moved away from me, his cheeks reddening slightly despite his already red skin. Seeing him become all flustered, I just smiled and let him be.

Moving on from the office, we came to the end of the hallway and found a door leading to a patio outside. Everything was normal until Octavious opened the door and stepped through it. As soon as he did that, we heard a loud, booming voice echo throughout the mansion. We had no idea where it was coming from, and I can’t remember what was said exactly. It was some sort of warning or threat, I think. Anyway, Octavious quickly looked around and found nothing of note, so we continued back into the mansion’s interior.

We kept our guard up as we walked down the hallway, heading back towards the foyer. There didn’t seem to be any ghostly or other-worldly powers at play, so there had to be some sort of explanation for the voice we heard. Perhaps it was some sort of trick or prank someone was pulling on us. Until we found the culprit, there was no way of telling for sure. When we got back to the foyer, we decided to head up to the second floor and took the stairs.

I continued to lead the way and began ascending the staircase, keeping alert for a potential ambush with my bow drawn. As I arrived on the landing, everything was still as quiet and calm as when we first entered the building. There were no signs of whatever was the source of that voice yet. We all continued on and began clearing rooms like we had done on the first floor.

We chose one room at random and started there. While I had my bow trained on the door, Riardon kicked it open, allowing me to enter and swiftly clear it of any hostiles if necessary. Luckily, there wasn’t anything there, so after I gave the all clear, the others joined me inside and began looking around. Octavious saw the hearth in the room and went over to give it a closer look. As he was poking around, he found some sort of orb.

Immediately after Octavious took the orb and began inspecting it, another swarm of spiders descended from above and began attacking both him and Riardon. Riardon was not happy at being attacked yet again by spiders and was freaking out. As the spiders began crawling towards me on the ground, I started stomping away, crushing several underneath my boot. Unfortunately for me, I lost my balance and twisted my ankle as I tried to stomp on another group of spiders. I was rather embarrassed at that, and putting pressure on my injured ankle hurt pretty badly. I didn’t think the others noticed, so I played it off and tried to hide the limp I then had. After the spider situation had been taken care of, we moved on to the next room.

I was still in the lead and did my best to hide my limp, but it was more trouble than it was worth. I eventually just dropped the act and shuffled my way down to the next room. After I cleared the room, I noticed that the floor was unstable and notified the others. Octavious came in and spotted something across the room on the windowsill. I cautioned him about going over there, but his adventurous side got the better of him. He made sure to keep to the good side of the floor as he carefully inched his way over there. Eventually, he successfully makes it over and finds a normal-looking lamp. He gave it a closer look and didn’t find much of anything else. He placed the lantern back where he found it then returned to us before moving on.

The next room we encountered was locked, but we conveniently found a key right in front of it on the ground. We found it odd but decided to try the key anyway on the door. Surprisingly, the key was a fit, and we managed to get the door open. Inside, we found man lying in the far corner of the room. He appeared to be bound with rope and wearing nothing but his undergarments.

Seeing him all helpless, Riardon rushed in to see if the man was all right. He quickly undid his bindings and helped him up. The man’s name was Ned Shakeshaft, a merchant from Setin who was on his way to Saltmarsh to do some business. He was taking refuge in the mansion to get some rest before he was ambushed and captured. Being the generous and helpful person, Octavious took off his shirt and handed it to the man to wear until we could find him clothes. Since the man said he was captured, I figured we were dealing with a more secular threat than a spiritual one, so that was a relief. After looking around the room, we continued on to clearing the mansion with Ned following with us.

We continued on to another hallway and opened up the first room, but there wasn’t much to see there. Octavious found a disgusting, soiled mattress and an unassuming chest. Inside the chest, he found nothing but old clothes, much to his disappointment. Ned went over to it and picked out some articles to wear, handing Octavious back his shirt.

The next room we came across was a storage room of sorts. After I made sure the room was safe, Ned came barging through and began searching around for his things. He eventually found them and changed outfits once again. While looking around, Octavious found a sack of socks and wanted Ned to carry them for him for some reason. Ned, of course, didn’t want to, but Octavious kept heckling him to just take the sack. Seeing an opportunity for some fun, I stepped next to Ned and put on my “intimidating” face. I then looked him dead in the eye and told him to carry the sack, almost threateningly. Unfortunately, Ned didn’t seem to buy my act and declined once again. I glared at him for a brief moment then turned away, giving Octavious a shrug. I guess I had grown a bit soft since leaving the marines.

As I began looking around the room, the air of levity from before was quickly deflated as I looked upon a grisly sight. There was blood on a chair and on the floor directly in front of it. The chair also had restraints on it which didn’t bode well for whomever was unfortunate enough to find themselves seated in it. Whatever was going on in that house, I was dead set on stopping it.

Moving on, we found two staircases, one heading down and one heading up. We decided to finish the floor we were on before taking the staircase leading downward. Checking another room, we found a wardrobe inside. Octavious and Riardon went over to it and carefully opened it up, just in case there was an enemy lying in wait there. Inside, they found just an old coat and a pair of boots. Since the coat was musty and smelled bad, Destan used some magic to make it smell like huckleberries; he also colored it pink for some reason. Finding it amusing, Octavious took the coat and tried to make Ned wear it, but he declined. Octavious continued to harass Ned playfully while the rest of us looked around the room.

The next room we came across was just a bedroom with a large bed. We didn’t find anything interesting, so we moved back to the staircase that went down to the first floor. At the bottom of the stairs, we entered into a small kitchen, the very same place Ned said he got ambushed in. There were signs of a struggle and a bit of blood on the floor. We carefully secured the room then opened one of the doors we found. It seemed to lead down into the cellar, so we decided to hold off going down there until we finished scouting the first floor.

It didn’t take us long to finish clearing the first floor. Octavious found a door leading out to the backyard, but there was nothing out there, so we went back inside. Then we found another room, but there was nothing of note in there either. Having finished going through the first floor, or at least so we thought, we took the staircase down into the cellar with Octavious in the lead.

As we were descending the stairs, we heard a frightening shriek. The others didn’t seem as affected by it as much I was, but I didn’t let on that I was somewhat startled. I wasn’t expecting it and I nearly lost my balance on one of the steps due to my limp. We continued to the bottom of the stairs and scanned the room for any potential enemies.

One of us then spotted a body lying on the ground. It was clad in plate armor and had a longsword on the ground beside it. The body matched the description of the missing person Claudius told us about, so we went over to investigate. Destan used some magic to light the nearby fireplace to give us some light. Riardon was first to arrive at the body, and as he was giving it a closer look, two swarms of Rot Grubs emerged from the body and attacked us. Surprised by the sudden attack, Riardon tripped and fell backwards, breaking one of his Potions of Healing in his pouches. The rest of us quickly came to his aid and thwarted the Rot Grubs’ attack.

Once the area was safe for the time being, we began looking around. The body was indeed the boy Marcus, but there was nothing else we could do for him. He was already dead, so we figured we’d just leave his corpse there until we were ready to leave. Destan found a set of footprints and followed them, but the trail went cold after it led him straight into a wall. He gave the wall a closer look and found a secret door. Curious, he opened it up and was promptly ambushed by three assailants that were inside the room, which had been converted into a living-quarters.

Hearing the commotion, we all prepared for a fight and went to help him. I drew my bow and fired at the closest enemy to me. Meanwhile, Riardon rushed ahead and engaged one of the bandits, taking him out with a flurry of punches. Octavious got into the middle of the fray, but he was outmatched by his opponent and went down. Seeing him in need of my help, I immediately changed targets and began firing at the one that he was fighting, taking him out with one of my arrows. The last bandit was charmed by Destan and neutralized, thus ending the fight.

After the fighting had ceased, I hurried over to Octavious and knelt down, holding him in my arms. I caressed him gently and gave him one of my Potions of Healing to get him all healed up. While I was taking care of Octavious, Destan went over and began talking to the bandit archer he had charmed. While the archer was talking to Destan, I couldn’t help but overhear her, clenching my teeth together and doing my best to control myself. I listened as she talked so casually about all the horrible crimes she committed, things ranging from theft to murder. I just wanted to take my dagger and gut her right there and then, but I was too busy tending to Octavious’ wounds. Once Octavious was feeling better, I let him be and retrieved the arrows I let loose earlier.

Since we were out of healing supplies and injured, we decided to call it a day and head back to town. We found Marcus, saved Ned, and captured one of the bandits alive to hand over to the City Watch. Not wanting to take any chances, the others began tying up and restraining the bandit, which caused the charm magic to wear off. We prepared ourselves then began heading back to the front of the mansion. Destan was escorting our disorderly prisoner while Riardon and Ned carried Marcus’ body. I still had a slight limp, so I was in no condition to do any of the heavy lifting.

Just as we got to the stairs, we heard lots of movement coming from somewhere else in the cellar. We were in no condition for another fight, so we hurried up the stairs and exited the kitchen, closing the door behind us. Destan handed the bandit over to me to watch before using his magic to freeze the door shut. Since I was limping, Octavious took the bandit from me to look after instead. During the commotion, Ned up and disappeared, but that couldn’t be helped. We had more pressing matters to deal with like getting out of there alive. While Destan was finishing with the kitchen door, the rest of us began heading for the front door.

We heard more footsteps coming from our left down the hall, so Octavious used the bandit as a human shield and was rather forceful with her. Just as Destan was about finished freezing the door, more enemies appeared from the side hallway and entered into the mansion’s foyer. One of them fired off a spell and caught Destan out in the open, knocking him down to the ground. Seeing his friend get hit hard, Riardon dropped Marcus’ body and hurried to his aid. At the same time, Octavious took the bandit he was using as a shield and kicked her in the back towards the group of bandits. That allowed me a bit more time to hurry to the exit as he covered my retreat. I fought through the pain in my leg and did my best to get to the front door with the others. Riardon got to Destan and picked him up, moving towards the exit as well. He got there first and made it out with Destan on his back. Octavious came over to me and helped me the rest of the way, getting me out of the building as well.

Exiting the mansion wasn’t the end of our predicament, unfortunately. Closing the front door only delayed them for a few moments as we struggled to put some distance between us and them. Riardon was carrying an unconscious Destan while Octavious was helping an injured me. The bandits made it outside in no time and began attacking us once more. Octavious was the first to go down as a spell caught him in the back. Without my crutch, I almost went down with him but managed to keep standing. As I tried to drag him along, Riardon was cut down by an archer’s arrow, falling to the ground along with Destan’s unconscious body. Finding myself as the last one standing and slowly becoming surrounded by enemies, I drew my dagger and lashed out at the closest one to me. My injured leg didn’t help me any and I stumbled, missing my attack and opening myself up for an easy counter. The last thing I remembered was seeing everyone lying on the ground motionless before everything went black.


	3. I Am the Captain Now

When I awoke next, I felt rather beat and sore. I was cold, dirty, and hungry. As I slowly came to, I noticed that I was unable to move my arms apart; they were shackled at the wrists by metal restraints. I also noticed that most of my clothes and gear were missing. I was only wearing my undergarments much to my horror. At least I wasn’t completely nude, so I guess that was a silver-lining as least. I then noticed a large scar on my torso. It looked like an arrow wound, so I guess that was the final hit that did me in.

After taking a look at myself, I raised my head and took in my surroundings. I was in a small, dimly lit room with four other people. Thankfully, everyone was there and seemingly alive- Octavious, Riardon, Destan, and another I did not recognize. They were all just like me, clothed in nothing but their undergarments and restrained at the wrists. I was immediately glad to see that Octavious was alive, but then I was dismayed to see that he was yet again a prisoner against his will. As I began moving, the others noticed me and filled me in on what was going on. I was the last one to wake up, and they were beginning to worry that I was dead.

The first thing they did was introduce me to the mysterious fifth person sharing the room with us. His name was Oceanus and he was a sea elf. He didn’t speak Common, but he did speak Aquan and Elvish. Fortunately, I spoke Elvish, so communication wasn’t going to be a problem. They then told me that we all had been handed over to pirates and were aboard their ship, heading for destinations unknown. Oceanus told them it had been roughly two days since we were brought aboard the ship, and he had been there for six nights already. After getting a handle on our situation, we began to ask him some questions.

I asked the others if they had been thinking of a plan to escape, but they hadn’t. I then began asking Oceanus some questions to get a better understanding of what we were up against. I learned that besides the captain, there were maybe four to five other crew members, but that information was spotty at best. There was a wizard among the crew, but he didn’t know where they were. The door to our cell was only opened when food was brought by, and it had already been distributed for the day. I asked where my food was and Oceanus sheepishly said that he ate it, figuring I wasn’t going to wake up any time soon. I just grumbled at him and let it go, not wanting to waste what little energy I had. Thinking on the information we had gathered, we didn’t have much to work with, so we continued to discuss things in preparation for the next day. After we had done all we could, we got some rest and went to sleep.

#

The next day, we discussed things further and waited for our food to arrive. We needed a bit more information before we were able to make a move. While we were waiting, we heard a voice nearby, but it turned out to be only a parrot. It was talking about something called the “Pieces of Eight”, but we figured it was just nonsense.

Eventually, the door to our cell opened and a large, imposing man entered. He had a hook for a hand, and he was the ship’s bosun. While he was handing out food, I looked him over for any potential weaknesses I could exploit, but despite his hook-hand, I didn’t seem to find any. After handing out all the food, he left and closed the door once more. The food was rather unappetizing, but if I wanted to get my strength back, I had to eat something. I only had a bite or two, not wanting to finish it all and make my stomach upset.

While we were left by ourselves, Octavious decided to have a little fun with our captors, and he used his magic to mess with them. He noticed that the bosun got annoyed with the parrot sometimes, so he decided to use that to his advantage. He mimicked the parrot loudly and made it appear as if it was coming from somewhere else on the ship. He did it again and again until the bosun got tired of it all.

Suddenly, the bosun came barging in, figuring that it was one of us and not actually the parrot that was annoying him. For some odd reason, he singled me out and thought I was the cause of it all. Perhaps he didn’t think it was me, but since I was the only female in the group, he thought he could threaten me to get the real culprit to reveal himself. He approached me and picked me up with his good hand, raising his hook to my neck and drawing a tiny bit of blood. I tried to remain firm and not be intimidated by him, but then I looked into his eyes and recognized them from my marine days. They were the eyes of a killer, and he wasn’t playing around. I suddenly became a bit more unnerved as I was in no position to retaliate or defend myself. I was completely at his mercy, and I didn’t like it.

Seeing the bosun completely focused on me, Destan used some magic to discern his name and managed to get it- Foul Frithouth. With that in mind, he used his spell and successfully managed to charm the bosun, commanding him to set him free. The bosun complied and set me down before unlocking Destan’s manacles. Unfortunately, the bosun somehow broke free from the charm spell and tried to escape. Using all the energy I had left, I kicked the bosun in the groin and managed to stop him before he got away. Everyone else then joined in and beat the bosun unconscious. Once he was taken care of, Destan retrieved the keys from his body and freed us all. Before we left, we chained the bosun up and gagged him before locking him up in the cell we were just in.

Once we were out of the cell, we remained as quiet as we could and crept into the adjacent room, keeping an eye out for any more crew members. Luckily, the room was empty, so we began searching around for anything useful. There was a large chest there, so we huddled around and opened it up. To our relief, we found all our clothes and gear stored within. We took some time to get dressed and take inventory of our belongings. It seemed only our clothes and weapons were in there; everything else had to be somewhere else on the ship. There was nothing we could do about that for the time being, so we prepared ourselves to take the ship by force.

Armed with our weapons, we proceeded on to the two other doors in the room. Destan checked one while I went over to the other. Destan heard voices on the other side of his while I did not, so we opened the door I was next to. We entered a dark bedroom with little to no light within. Thankfully, we all had Darkvision, so the lack of light didn’t impede our exploration.

We went in and had a look around. Destan looked under the bed only to find a lewd book. Riardon checked the walls and found a secret room which was filled with weapons. I remained alert and made sure none of the crew snuck up behind us. After clearing the room, we decided to try and thin the crew little by little. If we wanted to get back to Saltmarsh, we had to get complete control of the ship by any means necessary. We went back into the room we were just in and decided to try the door with the voices behind it.

At first, we tried to sneak up and catch the enemy by surprise, but someone made a noise which prematurely alerted them to our presence. It was a small group of four, so we attacked them head on since we had lost the element of surprise. The fight went well, and we managed to take them all out, but then reinforcements came and it was right back to it. During the ensuing fight, I lost my footing due to some rough waves and hit my head on the way down, nearly going unconscious. I managed to keep awake and hurried to get back on my feet. It was rather embarrassing, but I blamed it on fatigue and an empty stomach. We continued to fight and succeeded in killing the First Mate, a man called Bloody Bjorn.

Everything was going well until the captain of the crew and the wizard Oceanus mentioned before joined the fight. The battle continued, but in the end, we reigned victorious. We got the captain to stop fighting and parlay, wanting to discuss the terms of his surrender with us. He said that if we let him and what was left of his crew live and escape on one of the rowboats, he’d leave us alone, and we could have his ship. We discussed things amongst ourselves and eventually agreed to his terms. Some of us didn’t feel right letting him live because of the crimes he committed, but we couldn’t take them all on.

Once the agreement was settled, the captain and his remaining crew returned to the top deck and began getting one of the rowboats ready. They lowered it into the water, and once they were all onboard, they began rowing away. Unfortunately, the crew member in the crow’s nest had been napping, and he awoke just in time to see his fellow mates rowing away. He started calling out to them and hastily began to climb down, but then he slipped and fell the rest of the way, splatting against the deck. He died on impact, and he made a disgusting, fleshy sound as his body landed. I just rolled my eyes and made sure the rowboat got far enough away before doing anything else.

With the original crew gone, the ship was ours to do with as we pleased. To commemorate things, Octavious went over and lowered the smuggler’s flag, removing it fully once it was all the way down. To make sure we were truly safe, Octavious and I went about clearing the rest of the ship. We wanted to make sure there were no stowaways or any lingering crew members like the guy on the crow’s nest.

Returning below deck, Octavious and I decided to try one room and carefully opened it up, unsure of what was on the other side. To our surprise, we found three scaly figures all sleeping on hammocks. Suddenly, they stirred awake and looked to us, speaking in what appeared to be Draconic. They didn’t look to be part of the crew, nor did they look like prisoners, so we were unsure of what they were doing there. Octavious tried to speak to them in what little Draconic he knew to figure out who they were, but his lack of communication skills only angered the lizardfolk. Sensing a confrontation about to happen, I told Octavious that we should retreat and regroup with the others. We were outnumbered, and they were much stronger than we were.

Octavious then shut the door right in their faces, and we hurried away from the door, preparing for a fight. We stood there and waited for them to come charging out, but the door didn’t budge. We called out for the others to come help us, but we didn’t get a response from them. Wanting to try a peaceful approach, Octavious said he could talk to them and try and figure things out. After the way we just treated them, I wasn’t sure that talking was going to do anything, but he was adamant in trying again. Seeing that he was firm in his stance, I relented but kept my bow at the ready. We slowly approached the door and slowly opened it up again.

The three lizardfolk were just standing there with a rather pissed off look on their faces. Octavious apologized for the rudeness earlier and began his conversation with them again. This time, he managed to get them to calm down and talk civilly with him. It turned out that the lizardfolk had made an agreement with the pirates, but the pirates had yet to fulfill their end of the bargain. The pirates were supposed to give them a bunch of weapons and bring them back to their village. We thought for a few moments then remembered the large stash of weapons Riardon had found earlier. Not wanting to deal with the lizardfolk, we told them they could have all the weapons and one of the rowboats. All that was left was to bring them back to their village. Seeing that Octavious had everything under control, I continued with my sweep of the ship.

I went into one of the nearby rooms and found a food storeroom. I was rather hungry, so I took some time to peruse what it had offer. I picked up some smoked sausages and snacked on a few of those before continuing on. I found myself in the cargo hold and began looking around, eventually finding the rest of my stuff. I went about making sure I had everything, and luckily, all my belongings were still in my pack. With my bag secured on my back, I made my way up to the top deck to see what everyone was doing.

When I got back up top, I happened to notice that we were passing a mansion located on top of a cliff. I wondered if it was the same one where we got captured at. It had to be. While I was looking at it, I saw a flashing light in one of the windows. It looked like it was coming from a lantern, and it was blinking in some sort of pattern, but it wasn’t Morse Code or something I recognized. Since I didn’t know the code, I didn’t bother responding or even attempting to. I then looked away and noticed Destan by the helm trying to figure out how to navigate the ship. Since I had some seafaring experience from my marine days, I went over to help out.

Once the lizardfolk told us where their village was approximately located, we got the ship prepared to head out. With Destan at the helm, Riardon and I fixed the sails while Octavious raised the anchor using the capstan. Once the ship was finally underway and heading southbound, Octavious helped the lizardfolk recover their promised weapons and load their rowboat. Meanwhile, I kept an eye out for obstacles and whatnot, ready to tell Destan to turn if he needed to.

After traveling for some time, the lizardfolk said that we were close enough and had us stop. We lowered the anchor and raised the sails, causing the ship to come to a stop in the water. Once the ship was steady, we helped lower the rowboat laden with weapons into the water. The three lizardfolk jumped overboard into the water then got into their rowboat, taking their haul back to their village. With the lizardfolk finally out of the way, we turned the ship around and headed back to Saltmarsh, passing by the mansion on the cliff on the way back.

#

It took us a bit of sailing, but we managed to get back to Saltmarsh around early morning the next day. Thankfully, nothing treacherous happened to us during the journey back. It was already hard enough keeping the ship on course with the few people we had. As we got closer to the harbor, I helped guide Destan in. We had to be extra careful not to hit any of the other boats or crash into the dock. With Destan’s steady hand on the wheel and my guidance and maneuvering, we managed to successfully park the ship in a vacant spot at the dock. Once we were in a good position, we lowered the anchor and raised the sails.

While we were taking care of the ship and getting ready to disembark, a clutch of watchmen came rushing over to us. Since our ship wasn’t flying any colors or flags, we were highly suspicious and attracted the attention of the authorities. At the lead of the group of watchmen heading for us was the Captain of the Guard himself, Eliander. Seeing him there was a relief, and it made things a lot easier for us when we had to inevitably explain ourselves. Octavious and I took the lead and stepped forward in preparation to greet the watchmen.

As Eliander and the rest of his entourage got closer, he instantly recognized Octavious and grimaced, wondering what his son had gotten himself into. He had his men lower their weapons and boarded the ship, approaching Octavious and I with a perplexed expression. We then explained to him briefly what happened to us and how we happened to come by the ship. The captain was astonished at our story and told us to meet him at his house to tell him everything in great detail.

In the meantime, Eliander had his men offload all the stolen goods that were from the King’s Alliance. Octavious wanted to keep it all to sell or whatever, but I told him they weren’t ours to begin with. I had no problem with them taking it, so I gladly told Eliander about them despite Octavious’ wishes. After the ship and cargo were taken care of, we followed Eliander back to his house and gathered in his office. There, we went into full detail about our excursion to the mansion, getting captured, the taking of the pirate ship, and subsequent journey back to Saltmarsh.

For our troubles, Eliander gave us a sack of 400gp, meaning we each got 100gp; Oceanus was excluded since he wasn’t with us for the mansion part. He then told us that he’d talk with the Council, and he’d see if he could offer some aid in finishing off the smugglers at the mansion. We thanked him for that and told him we’d accept any help he was willing to give us.

Before we left, Eliander also mentioned something else that could potentially benefit us. If we were willing to partner with the King’s Alliance, he’d allow us to keep our ship and would even lend a crew to man it for a year. Since I wasn’t going to be sticking around for that long, I left the decision up to Octavious and the others. Of course, they agreed if it meant they could have a ship of their own. Eliander gave us all an approving nod and said he’d get on that as well. He was going to have the ship looked after and refitted for our purposes. After all our business had been concluded, we all dispersed until the next day.

From Octavious’ house, I went to let my father know I was all right. I had been gone for a few days without saying goodbye, so I was sure he was a bit worried. I found him at the taco stand as per usual, and he was relieved to see me. I gave him an abridged version of what happened as to not worry him too much. While I was there, I sat down and had a few tacos to brighten my mood. I hadn’t had a proper meal in days and the taste of the tacos was a welcomed experience. I just sat at a nearby table and relaxed, munching happily on my meal. After that, I stopped by the tanner’s place and picked up my two giant weasel furs. They were expertly cleaned and processed, meaning I could wear them as is; though, it was way too hot to be wearing furs, so I just brought them back home and stashed them away.

#

After waking up the next day and having a bit of breakfast, I headed on over to the Snapping Line tavern to meet up with the others. I found them, including Oceanus, already there, sitting around a table and looking well rested and fully recovered. Octavious said that his father had some news for us, so after everyone had a bite to eat, we followed him back to his house.

We met Eliander back in his office, and he said that he was able to meet with the Council and get us some help. The Council allowed him to lend us a couple of his watchmen to help us finish what we started at the mansion. One of them was named Zadrath and the other was Claudius, whom we were already familiar with. The Council also offered us a bounty for the apprehension of any smugglers we happened to take alive. Taking prisoners wasn’t our strongest suit, but we were going to give it a try. After Eliander was done talking, he directed us towards the barracks where the two watchmen were waiting.

When we arrived at the barracks, we found Zadrath there but not Claudius. Zadrath then told us that Claudius was at his post by the front gate, so we all headed out to rendezvous with him. As we got closer, Claudius was a little less than enthused about seeing us approaching. He really wasn’t looking forward to his new assignment, especially when it dealt with a supposedly haunted house. We assured him there wasn’t anything supernatural happening and that it was just a group of unruly smugglers.

Once we were all together, we proceeded on towards the haunted mansion once more. It was me, Octavious, Riardon, Destan, Oceanus, Claudius, and Zadrath. Surely, we had enough people this time to take care of the smugglers once and for all. I was itching for some revenge, and I was sure the others were as well. On the way there, I filled the guards in on what to expect and what we faced the last time we were there. I went over things like enemy composition, numbers, and fighting styles. I wanted them to be aware of everything we were, so there wouldn’t be any surprises once the fighting inevitably started.

As we got closer to the mansion, we began creeping up slowly and stealthily. We kept to the brush and approached with caution. The front door was closed, so we supposed the smugglers were still around there somewhere. Seeing the area right in front of the porch brought back unpleasant memories, so I tried to focus and pushed them out of my mind.

Instead of breaching from the front, we decided to sneak around back and enter the building from there. As we entered through the back entrance, the same loud voice was heard, and it repeated the same thing from the last time we opened the door. It seemed that it was rigged to do that, and there was no way of stopping it. I just grimaced and proceeded on in anyways, despite the element of surprise being lost.

We continued into the room and began securing the area. While I was inspecting the floor, I found a trap door that we missed the last time we were there. I figured it was the same one the smugglers used to flank us while we were escaping towards the front door through the foyer. Destan came over to it and decided to open it up to see where it led. As soon as he opened the trap door, he was attacked by those down below. He got struck by one of them, and we immediately shut the trap door to prevent the attackers from coming up. Destan used his magic to freeze shut the hatch as we prepared ourselves for a fight.

Since most of the smugglers seemed to be located down below, we went around and began heading to the stairs leading down into the cellar. When we reached the foyer, we saw that Marcus’ body was still there, but a lot more decayed and rotten looking. Ignoring the body for now, we carefully went down the stairs and entered the cellar. There were still no signs of the enemy, so we continued onwards. We entered the living-quarters behind the secret door Destan stumbled upon when we were last there.

While we were looking around, we happened upon a woman lying on one of the cots. She seemed to be awake, but she was only moving her eyes. Curious, we snuck closer for a better look. If she was one of the smugglers, then she had to be dealt with. As we got up right next to her, Octavious recognized her as one of the smugglers from before, the very same one he had used as a shield and kicked. Someone looked the woman over and discerned that she was paralyzed, a probable result of Octavious’ kick to her spine. Upon hearing that, Octavious was rather shocked and appalled that he had paralyzed her. Since the woman was no longer a threat, we let her be and continued on to deal with her comrades.

We continued to wander around down there until we found ourselves in a cave system of sorts underneath the mansion. Halfway through it, we encountered the main bulk of the smuggler group that was based there. Included among them was their leader, a man named Sanbalet, and a familiar face, the “merchant” Ned. It turned out that Ned was actually a member of the smuggler group, and he deceived us so he wouldn’t be killed on the spot. I was rather annoyed at seeing Ned there, but not nearly as much as Octavious was when he saw him. Octavious knew something was up with Ned, but he just couldn’t put his finger on it. Before he could curse out Ned for duping us like that, the fighting began.

The fight was a bit more difficult than I expected, as there were a couple of bugbears among the smugglers. It also didn’t help that the quarters were tight in the cave we were in, so I had limited visibility to make accurate and safe shots. I didn’t want to hit an ally if I was able to avoid it, so I carefully picked my shots when I loosed an arrow.

Still pissed off that Ned was actually an enemy, Octavious rushed ahead of us to get to him and make him pay. I tried to call out to him and make him stop, but he wouldn’t listen. Since he was dead set on getting to Ned, I did my best to cover him. In the end, he managed to fight his way to Ned and kill him with his own two hands, but it wasn’t without cost. He was severely hurt himself by all the enemies around him, and he fell to the ground due to his injuries.

The others up front who were closer to Octavious fought hard to come to his aid. They managed to subdue most of the enemies, including Sanbalet whom they knocked unconscious. Zadrath was finally able to get over to Octavious and administered a Potion of Healing. Octavious managed to get back on his feet and return to the fight, but only for a short time. Again, an enemy got the better of him and knocked him flat on his back. I pushed my way more towards the front and loosed a couple more arrows, taking out the remaining enemies there.

Once the fighting had ceased, we had some time to gather ourselves. Regrettably, Octavious wasn’t the worst off during the fight. Claudius had sustained mortal wounds and had died as a result of them during combat. There wasn’t anything we could do as none of us had strong enough healing magic to save him.

Not wanting to linger around any longer than we had to, Zadrath took out some manacles and cuffed Sanbalet’s wrists behind him. Sanbalet was still knocked-out, so we had to carry his body out of there when we left. Before leaving, we decided to look around a bit more and ventured further into the cave.

We found a side passage that led into a dead-end filled with several crates of stolen goods. Among the goods we found there were cases of brandy and fine silk. It was quite the haul, but there was no way we were going to be able to bring it all back to Saltmarsh on our own. Further down the cave, we found an exit that led out to the water. There was a small dock there with a large rowboat tethered to it. With a boat then at our disposal, we began planning our trip back to Saltmarsh. In the boat, we were going to have myself, Riardon, Octavious, Sanbalet, Claudius’ body, and some of the stolen goods. Oceanus and Destan were going to swim alongside us while Zadrath remained at the mansion to secure it and await back-up. Once we were all in agreement, we moved to carry out the plan.

We hauled Sanbalet’s unconscious body, Claudius’ body, and some of the goods onto the rowboat. Meanwhile, Zadrath returned back to the mansion above to wait for his fellow watchmen to come relieve him. Once everyone who was going to ride on the boat was situated in, we began heading back to Saltmarsh on the open water. It took quite a bit of effort, but we eventually managed to get back to the docks in Saltmarsh in one piece. The others used the oars to propel us while I navigated and watched for obstacles.

As we got the boat secured at an opening by the docks, we were once again greeted by Eliander and an accompanying handful of his watchmen. While we were disembarking, I saw a look of regret on his face, as well as some of the other watchmen, as we carefully pulled out Claudius’ lifeless body. We told him everything that happened at the mansion and how we rooted out the last of the smuggler group.

Sanbalet was awake by then, but we had gagged him to prevent him from annoying us during the trip back. Upon seeing him, Eliander had some of his men take him in to custody to answer for his crimes. He then had the rest of his men begin offloading all the recovered stolen goods. After they were done with all that, he was going to have his men head straight for the mansion to recover the rest of the goods, the paralyzed smuggler, and Marcus’ body.

Once his men were set to purpose, Eliander turned to us and congratulated us on a job well done, despite the casualty the City Watch had suffered. He assured us it wasn’t our fault and that Claudius had died in the line of duty, as all watchmen were prepared to do. He then told us that we could keep the rowboat while also giving us a sack containing 200gp, meaning we each got 50gp. That was for bringing in Sanbalet alive. He also gave each us an extra 10gp for finding Marcus.

Before we left, Eliander recommended that we lay low and perhaps leave town for a while. He wasn’t sure just how big the smuggler group was, and if they had connections still out there, they’d most likely be after us. He mentioned that there was a job available regarding a disturbance in the Dreadwood. If we wanted something to do in the meantime, he suggested taking a look into that. We told him we might just do that then left to rest for the remainder of the day.


	4. Dragons & Dungeons

The following day, we asked around and got more information regarding the job Eliander mentioned to us the day before. It had to do with goblins handing out poisoned apples to unsuspecting travelers. People were dying as a result of it, so the City Watch wanted someone to put a stop to the whole operation. The job seemed easy enough, so we gathered some supplies before heading out.

I bought myself a couple more Potions of Healing since my team, namely Octavious, fancied fighting up close and personal which got them constantly injured. In addition to that, the group decided to invest in some horses for faster travel while on land. I had no need for a horse, but the others pressured me into using some of my money to pay for one anyway. I couldn’t afford a horse with the money I had, so I borrowed some from Destan to cover the rest of the cost. After spending a good portion of the money we had earned, we managed to get three horses complete with saddles and riding gear. I had some experience riding horses, but I was by no means an expert equestrian. Once we were all ready to go, we got on our horses and headed out.

The journey to the Dreadwood was going to take a couple of days. I was riding by myself while Octavious and Destan were riding on one, and Riardon and Oceanus riding on another. As we were exiting town, we happened to pass by the Leap, a morbid location well-known to all the locals. It consisted of an outcropping of rock located high up, around a hundred or so feet above a pool of churning water. When a person drowned at sea, their loved ones sometimes went there to leap into the water below. The fall usually wasn’t fatal as the water was clear of rocks, and most of the time the people who jumped managed to swim ashore to dry land. We caught glimpse of a woman there about to jump and figured it was Claudius’ wife, even though Claudius didn’t die by drowning at sea.

#

The two days of travel to get to the Dreadwood were uneventful, and we eventually arrived at our destination without a hitch. In the middle of the road we were traveling on, there was a giant crack or fissure in the ground. That was where we were told to go, so we figured we were in the right place. We led the horses off to the side of the road and got off, proceeding onwards on foot after securing them to a tree. I had Octavious stay back to mind the horses until we got back from scouting ahead. He was a bit annoyed but complied without too much fuss.

The rest of us approached the chasm and noticed several stone pillars. One of them had a rope tied around it. There was also a lot of graffiti written on the pillars, most of it in different languages that I couldn’t understand. Destan went over to the rope and saw that it went down into fissure below. He didn’t see anything alive down there, so he tugged on it to make sure it was secure then began climbing down. I looked back to where Octavious was and gestured for him to wait there. He waved back and remained by the horses, leaning against the tree as he put his hands in his pockets. I gave him a nod before following Oceanus and Riardon down the rope after Destan.

It was much darker in the depths of the chasm than up top where the sunlight was more prevalent. Since we could all see in the dark, I told everyone not to light any torches. I figured it was best if we could keep our presence hidden for as long as possible, at least, until we knew what we were up against. Destan took the lead, and we proceeded down a set of stone stairs.

At the bottom, we found what looked to be some sort of stone ruins. It was an old, dilapidated citadel of some sort, and it sank when the fissure in the ground opened up. Towards the entrance, we saw what looked to be bodies lying all around. Seeing that as not a good sign, we continued on with caution. When we got closer, we noticed that the dead bodies were goblins. It looked like there was some sort of battle there, but all we saw were goblin bodies. We also found a trap door with two skeletons at the bottom along with another goblin body.

The area was quiet so far, so we moved forward and entered the citadel. We had to climb up over a ledge to get to the entrance, but it wasn’t too difficult. The first room we came upon was large and circular, and like the courtyard outside, was filled with dead goblins. We kept our weapons at the ready as we went over to investigate the corpses.

Looking around, I went over to one of the goblins by the wall. It was impaled by a spear and stuck to the wall, but I didn’t recognize the origin of the weapon. I then noticed runes inscribed on the wall behind the body, but I couldn’t read it. It looked like Draconic, but I wasn’t sure. I beckoned the others over to see if they could read it, but unfortunately, none of them knew Draconic either. Seeing as we couldn’t make heads or tails about the runes, we move on to investigate the rest of the room.

By that time, Octavious had grown bored of waiting and went off on his own to regroup with us. When I saw him saunter in, I was a bit irritated that he disobeyed me like that and left the horses unattended, but I got a hold of myself and let it go. He’d always been that way, so I should’ve known better than to think I could control him. I just let him do as he pleased, since he was a grown man after all and not the puny little kid I used to know.

I went over to one of the doors in the room and checked to see if it was locked. I gently turned the handle and found that it was unlocked. I notified the others and they gathered around me, figuring that was as good a place to start as any. We carefully opened the door and found a hallway on the other side. Riardon thought he heard the sounds of feint crying coming from the end of it. That didn’t seem reassuring, so we prepared ourselves for anything. As we went down the hallway, the sound got louder, and we could all hear the whimpering.

At the end of the hallway, we entered a room that appeared to be the source of the noise. There was a large cage, a bedroll, a campfire, a bench, and a makeshift tent. We didn’t see anyone around at first, but the noise seemed to be coming from the tent. We all exchanged concerned looks and readied ourselves for whatever lurked inside.

Octavious took the lead and went over to the tent, pushing aside the flap and finding a lone kobold there. The kobold was sleeping and seemed to be having a nightmare, so he nudged him awake. After waking up, the little kobold said that goblins had taken their baby dragon, a wyrmling named Calcryx. The kobold, Meepo, was the keeper of the dragon and solely responsible for its wellbeing and caretaking. Unsure of what to do, Meepo volunteered to take us to his leader, a female kobold by the name of Yusdrayl. We had no idea what was going on, so we reluctantly followed the little guy further into the ruins.

It didn’t take us long until we found ourselves in what appeared to be a throne room. There were more kobolds around and some of them had weapons, so we guessed they were the guards. At the end of the throne room, we found a female kobold wearing tattered white robes and sitting on a stone throne. The throne had a stone statue of a dragon on it, and it looked like there was a key in the dragon’s mouth. Meepo brought us directly to Yusdrayl then sheepishly went silent.

Yusdrayl addressed us all and asked what we were doing in her domain. She already had a problem in the form of goblins taking their god away, so she didn’t need another. We reassured her that we meant no harm and that we were investigating an issue regarding the goblins and poisoned apples. Yusdrayl thought for a moment, but she was unfamiliar with anything related to that. She just told us that she and her kin hated the goblins and wanted them gone. I guess they were the ones who were battling with the goblins at the front of the ruins.

While Yusdrayl had our attention, she offered to give us a reward if we were able to find their dragon and return it to them. Dealing with dragons wasn’t my specialty, but the others figured since we were there, we might as well keep an eye out. We took the job and told her we’d do our best to return the wyrmling if we happened to come upon it. She thanked us and warned that an outcast was the leader of the goblins. We didn’t know what that meant, but we kept that in mind. Before we left, she told us that Meepo would be accompanying us, since it was his fault that the dragon was captured by the goblins. Upon hearing that, Meepo didn’t look so enthused about having to come with us, but since it was his leader commanding him to do so, he didn’t say otherwise. After talking with Yusdrayl, we left the throne room with Meepo leading the way to where he thought the goblins might’ve went.

Once we were far enough away from the throne room, Meepo began talking to us about his situation. Since he was much smaller when compared to his brethren, and a bit dim-witted, he was constantly bullied and picked on. Yusdrayl made him the dragon keeper because of that, and he hated the job. He feared the wyrmling and it always scratched and attacked him when he tried to carry out his duties. It was no wonder we found him crying like that all by himself. Poor baby.

As we were making our way through the ruins, we encountered a trapped door that we failed to notice. Octavious and Riardon triggered a trap which activated a swinging scythe that came out of nowhere. They got hit by it, but thankfully their wounds weren’t serious. Meepo said he hadn’t been that way before and wasn’t aware of the trap. Stepping back from the door, Destan then used his magic to open the door safely for us to pass through.

Inside the room, there were five sarcophagi, three on one side and two on the other. There was also an altar at the back that had some items placed on top of it. Sensing valuable treasure to be had, Riardon and Octavious rushed in to claim the items first for themselves. As soon as they grabbed the items off the altar, the sarcophagi all opened up and skeletons came climbing out. Looking back, we should have surmised that something was amiss, but unfortunately, my comrades were just too eager to find loot. Seeing the skeletons begin to shamble about, we acted quickly and took care of them.

As soon as the fighting was over, Riardon and Octavious took a closer look at the items they took from the altar, curious to see why the skeletons were so eager to protect them. Octavious found a flask, but it was already filled with a curious liquid. After some investigation, he determined it was a Potion of Fire Resistance. Since he was already resistant to fire due to his tiefling heritage, he gave the flask to Destan.

Meanwhile, Riardon had found himself a mysterious whistle. After wiping the mouthpiece, as if that did anything to properly clean it, he gave it a blow to see what it did and watched as one of the skeletons in the room “came back to life”. We immediately raised our weapons, but the skeleton wasn’t doing anything. It appeared that the whistle had put the skeleton under Riardon’s command, so that was pretty interesting.

Before moving on, I went over and investigated a curious looking dragon fountain. There was an inscription on the front that was written in Draconic, so I had Meepo come over to translate it for me. Right after he read the inscription aloud, a bright liquid began to spew forth from the dragon’s mouth into the catch basin directly below. It looked like lava, but it didn’t give off any heat. Upon closer inspection, I discovered that it was actually a Potion of Fire Breathing. Once I told the others, Destan came over and offered me his Potion of Fire Resistance. He wanted to empty out his flask and replace it with the potion from the fountain. I said sure, and he took out an empty potion bottle before pouring the flask’s contents into it. After handing me the potion, he filled his flask with the fountain’s liquid. After he was done with that, we moved on.

Meepo continued to lead the way, and we entered a musky corridor. From there, we went through another door into a room and were ambushed by two goblins; though, they were no match for us, and we easily dispatched them. The others looted them, but they had nothing of worth on their person. Ahead of us, the floor was littered with caltrops, so we stopped while I went about picking them all up. I collected about two hundred of them and kept them in an empty burlap sack I had with me. Once the path forward was clear, we continued on and found ourselves at the back of some practice archery range.

There were three goblin archers at the other side of the room, and since we were still undetected, we decided to have some mischievous fun with them. Destan used his magic and created a dense fog, pushing it around the corner we were hiding behind and filling the archery range. While he was doing that, Octavious used his Thaumaturgy spell to say creepy things and make the bonfire the goblins were huddled around bigger. Lastly, Riardon still had his skeleton thrall following us, so he sent it in to attack the group.

Once the skeleton emerged from the mist and began attacking one of the goblins, Destan dispelled the fog and we advanced on their position. The goblins were completely frightened and fled, though, the one that the skeleton was attacking was left behind in the panic. Octavious moved ahead and finished it off with a swift unarmed strike.

From the archery range, we moved on and came upon a locked door. We figured that was where the goblins had fled to, so Riardon went up to it and bashed it open using brute force. To our surprise, we didn’t find the goblins but instead three captive kobolds and a battered gnome in a cage. Riardon took the initiative and stepped inside to free the kobolds. Once they were allowed to leave, they hurried out the door without even stopping to talk to Meepo on the way out. We the kobolds out of the way, we then turned our attention to the gnome and went over to him.

Destan went up to the cage and began talking with the gnome, wondering how he came to be imprisoned in the cage. The gnome said his name was Erky Timbers, but he didn’t seem to comprehend what was going on. I think he was hallucinating or something, because he didn’t seem completely aware of the reality of things. The gnome looked cramped in the cage, so Riardon used his immense monk strength and bent open the bars. Once he got them wide enough for Erky to get through, he exited the cage and stretched his limbs. All the while, he was rambling on about several different things. He mentioned that the goblins had others in captivity and that they feared someone named Belak. He continued on and said that Belak was a human outcast who tended to something called the Gulthias Tree. A lot of what he was saying didn’t make any sense to us at the time, so we didn’t give it much thought. Once he was freed, Erky decided to follow us as we continued on through the ruins.

In the next room, we found a storeroom of sorts with crates of questionable pies. They appeared to be meat pies, but what kind of meat, we weren’t exactly certain. I didn’t want to risk it by trying one, as did most of the others, but Meepo was more than willing to dig in. He grabbed one and immediately began eating it, remarking at how good it tasted. The contents of the pies were still very suspect, so I refrained from partaking in any.

Ignoring the pies, we ventured into the next room and were ambushed by five goblins, two of which were the same ones who fled from us earlier. We each took a goblin and defeated them one by one. That time, there were no survivors, and we were able to continue on unimpeded. Since Meepo hadn’t been that far into the ruins, we had him hang behind with Erky as we took point from then on.

Eventually, we came upon a room that we suspected to have several more enemies inside. We heard lots of voices from the other side, so we readied ourselves to catch them all by surprise. When we were ready, Octavious knocked open the door using a spell, and we all stormed in. We spotted an elderly goblin and four hobgoblins acting as his personal guard. I wanted to keep the elder goblin alive, but unfortunately the others killed him before I could interrogate him. Luckily, though, we did manage to capture one of the hobgoblins alive, so I guess that was better than nothing.

The hobgoblin that was still alive was knocked out cold, so while he was unconscious, I searched around for anything to tie him up with. I was able to find some leather belts and a bit of rope, so I used all that to secure the hobgoblin’s wrists behind his back. While I was taking care of the prisoner, the others began looting the dead bodies and a chest they found. They divided the gold they found between us all and I got 57gp, though, I gave 25gp of it to Destan to pay him back for lending me money to buy the horse.

When everyone was ready to continue on, I crouched down and slapped the prisoner across the face to wake him up. The hobgoblin stirred awake and glared at me as I stood up next to him. I tried to interrogate him, but the hobgoblin only spoke Goblin, so I had Riardon interpret for me. Unfortunately, the hobgoblin wasn’t cooperating with me and just said that he wanted to fight me one-on-one. I found his challenge amusing, so I agreed to fight him in unarmed combat- just me versus him. I wasn’t simply a pretty face; I had brawled quite a bit with my comrades while in the marines, so I knew how to fight. I had Riardon remove his bindings and prepared for our match, clenching my hands into fists as I took a fighting stance. Once the hobgoblin was free, he looked to me and charged recklessly. I just smirked and socked him right across the cheek with a solid punch, knocking him out once more. His limp body fell flat onto the ground, and he was completely out. I was rather disappointed by his poor showing, but hopefully I had made my point to make him more cooperative.

I went over to the hobgoblin and restrained his wrists once more using the rope and belts. I then rolled him onto his back and smacked him again to wake him back up. After he came to, I had Riardon translate for me as I got the hobgoblin to give us some useful information. Seeing as he was thoroughly beat, just having been knocked out by a half-elf girl half his size, he began cooperating and told us what we wanted to know. He told us where the kobolds’ wyrmling was, so we hauled him to his feet and had him lead us there.

We remained cautious as we kept the hobgoblin at the front of our group, keeping a look out for any potential signs of a trap. Eventually, our prisoner led us to a door and stopped, saying the wyrmling was being kept there in that room. If there was indeed a baby dragon on the other side of the door, we kept the hobgoblin positioned right in front of it as Octavious used his Thaumaturgy spell to open the door. Once it was open, Riardon pushed the hobgoblin inside, and the white dragon wyrmling appeared.

The wyrmling was certainly not happy to say the least about someone intruding into her lair, so she immediately attacked the hobgoblin and killed him before turning her attention to us. We tried to calm the wyrmling down and told her we meant it no harm. She restrained itself from attacking us for the moment, but she was still rather irritated about seeing us at her doorstep. We tried to get Meepo to talk to the dragon, but he didn’t budge from the back of our group, cowering in fear behind someone. He kept saying that the dragon wanted to kill him, and he didn’t want to go near her. Since Meepo was of no use to us, we decided to handle things on our own.

We continued to talk with Calcryx, but the dragon was not being cooperative. Since she was in her adolescent stage, and being a dragon to begin with, she was rather stubborn, and we were having a hard time trying to get her do what we wanted. We said she was free to return to the kobolds, but she didn’t want to leave her new home in the room she was in. She wasn’t happy being the kobolds’ captive and hated it back there. Instead, she wanted us to be her slaves and serve her for the rest of our lives. We weren’t about to agree to that, but we played along just until we got the dragon to start doing what we wanted. We strung her along, saying that we’d do what she wanted and such.

To start things off, Calcryx said she wanted meat and a lot of it. Thinking for a moment, we then remembered all the odd pies we found in one of the storerooms. We looked to Oceanus and told him to bring back as many as he could find. We figured that if we could get Calcryx to eat her fill, she’d be a bit more cooperative and receptive to our requests. While Oceanus was getting the food for Calcryx, we told Meepo to make himself useful and tell the rest of his “friends” that we’d found their missing dragon.

Little by little, Oceanus returned with an armful of pies and carefully presented them to Calcryx. The wyrmling dug into the offering and devoured them in little to no time at all. While she was eating, the rest of us discussed what to do with her. Since she wasn’t going to go back to Yusdrayl’s tribe, we figured we’d set her free outside or something. We weren’t too keen on being her servants, but perhaps if she was set free, she’d forget about us and go off on her own. After Calcryx had her fill of pie, we talked with her about getting her out of the ruins.

It took some heavy negotiating, but we eventually got Calcryx to consider leaving her room within the ruins. We asked her if she knew her mother or where she was, and she said she didn’t, so we lied and told her we probably knew where she might be. That was enough to entice the dragon to come outside with us, though, she wanted us to bring her treasure hoard with her. After getting permission to enter her lair, we quickly went about gathering all her treasure which included a jade dragon-shaped figurine, a crystal goblet, and 24 pieces of fine silverware. Someone asked what we were going to tell Yusdrayl, but we decided to deal with that if the time ever came. Once we had everything packed away, we began making our way to the front of the ruins. Calcryx followed behind us, though, she was impatient and quite vexed by the total affair, not fully trusting us yet.

On the way out, we ran into a group of kobolds that we assumed were part of Yusdrayl’s tribe. We attempted to explain the whole situation to them, but Calcryx made that very difficult. Remembering what it was like being in their captivity, she charged ahead of us and attacked the kobolds, killing them all with a frost breath attack. Not wanting to get caught up in a larger mess, we ushered Calcryx onward and quickly made our way out of the ruins before more kobolds showed up.

Once we were outside, we climbed the rope which was still attached to the column and escaped the chasm. Using her wings, Calcryx just flew up out of there and met us by the stone columns after we had all climbed out. Octavious was looking a little beat, so I patted him on the back and used a spell to heal him up a bit. While I was doing that, Erky bid us all farewell and thanked us for freeing him before taking his leave.

Now that we were finally out of the ruins, we gathered around Calcryx and tried to convince her to head north towards the mountains. That was where we said her mother was probably located, but of course, we had no idea. We told her to go on ahead since we’d just slow her down and annoy her, then we’d meet up with her at a later time. Unfortunately, Calcryx wasn’t buying our lies and refused to go. Despite being free to do as she pleased, she still wanted us to serve her and do her bidding. She was a spoiled brat and I then knew why the Order had put dragons on the kill-list. They were selfish and evil, only thinking about themselves and their greed. Having had enough of our falsehoods and trickery, Calcryx turned on us and attacked.

Even if Calcryx was just an adolescent wyrmling, she was still a very dangerous threat. I had to be on my guard if I wanted to survive, and I also had to keep an eye on Octavious to make sure he fared okay as well. It was a good thing I healed him using my magic earlier, or else he’d be a lot worse off during the fight. We all worked together and fought off Calcryx, having no other choice but to defend ourselves using lethal force. Octavious wanted to spare the dragon and somehow convince it to leave, but there was nothing that we could’ve done. In keeping with the Order’s prime directives, the creature had to be put down for the greater good. I took aim with an arrow and loosed it right into the dragon’s eye, killing her as it pierced right into her head. Octavious was visibly perturbed that I had killed her, but he didn’t say anything. I just let out a sigh and retrieved my arrows, not worrying over what was already done.

After Calcryx had been taken care of, we took a moment to rest and gather ourselves. I went over to Octavious and healed some of his wounds using my magic. We briefly exchanged words, and after that, I went over to the dragon to gather some samples to send back to the Order. I used my dagger and managed to pry off five ice dragon wyrmling scales. Destan was also interested in the dragon and went about foraging its corpse for whatever he could find- scales, organs, etc. While he was doing that, and while everyone was taking care of their own thing, I took out my notebook and jotted down some notes regarding our encounter and ensuing fight with Calcryx. We also took some time to split up Calcryx’s treasure hoard, and I received the jade dragon-shaped figurine and six pieces of fine silverware (two forks, two spoons, and two knives).

Since Calcryx was dead, we decided to head back into the ruins and at least notify Yusdrayl of the news. On the way back to the throne room, we happened to pass by Meepo in a hallway. For some reason, Octavious was not happy to say the least about seeing Meepo. He picked him up and pushed him against the wall, bullying him for a brief moment before dropping him to the floor. We continued on and passed by Meepo without as much as a word. I pitied the little guy, but there was nothing I could do for him at the moment.

Upon making it back to the throne room, we approached Yusdrayl who was seated upon her stone chair. We expressed our condolences about the kobolds Calcryx had killed, and she said it couldn’t have been helped. However, when we told her we killed Calcryx, she was very much distraught and disappointed at the turn of events. She didn’t want to hear anymore from us, telling us to leave and never come back. I guess it was to be expected, and I wasn’t sure what we were trying to accomplish. So, after telling her the news, we decided to leave her and her tribe alone and continue with the goblin situation regarding the poisoned apples. You know- our original reason for being there.


	5. Bad Apples

Earlier during our exploration of the ruins occupied by the goblins, we came upon a closed door with sounds of lots of activity coming from the other side. We deduced that it was some sort of marketplace, and we figured it was full of goblins, including non-combatants. We left that room alone and decided to come back to it at a later point, not wanting to deal with so many goblins at once. Now that time had come and we were ready to see what was on the other side. There was still a lot of noise coming from the other side, so we devised a plan of action before opening up the door.

We decided that our best bet was to get rid of all the non-combatants first before engaging in any kind of fighting. When things were inevitably going to get belligerent, we didn’t need distractions like kids or the elderly getting in our way. The others came up with a plan that involved using their magic to scare and drive the goblins away. With any luck, all of them would be completely frightened and flee, or at the very least, the non-combatants would run only leaving the armed guards to face us. It was worth a shot, so we all got into position and prepared to advance.

Part of the plan involved the dead body of the goblin chief that was still in the room we were in. Using magic, the others were going to create a dense fog in the adjacent room and mimic a loud, dragon’s voice to pretend that the dragon was back. Then, to add in some flair, we were going to toss in the dead chief’s body to further scare the remaining goblins into fleeing. When we were ready, someone grabbed the body while another opened the door. Once the fog and voice commenced, the body was tossed in to punctuate the act. I just prepared an arrow in case anyone tried to get through the door and attack us.

The ruse worked and most of the goblins fled, including all the non-combatants. Out of the thirty or so goblins that were present in the large room, only four armed guards remained. Once the room was mostly cleared out, we charged in and engaged the goblins that were left. During the fight, I managed to take out two of them myself using my bow. With the goblins taken care of, we looked around for anything that was related to producing poison apples.

We searched the room, but we came up empty. No apples. No poison. The poison apple operation had to be elsewhere in the ruins, so we had to continue looking. Before moving on, we rummaged through the area for anything useful. It was a marketplace after all, so there were lots of assorted general goods to be scavenged, most of which were stolen in the first place. I picked up a crowbar, grappling hook, and an empty burlap sack. After everyone had looked around the marketplace, we returned to the room we were just in where we had killed the goblin chief and all the hobgoblins.

In the center of that room, there was a large, deep well with no water in it. We gathered around it and looked down, seeing a chamber at the bottom. There were glowing mushrooms and runes along the sides which provided some light to illuminate things. Curious, we decided to check that out despite it being a hassle to get to. We had to be thorough, though, as we’d mostly been everywhere else in the ruins.

Using my new grappling hook, I took some rope we found in the marketplace and attached it, though, it wasn’t long enough to reach the bottom. Destan had some rope with him, so he tied one end of his to the end of mine. Once the rope was long enough, I secured the hook and made sure it was properly anchored. I then threw the combined rope down the well, hearing the end slap the bottom.

Destan volunteered to go first, so he grabbed hold of the rope and began rappelling down the well. Once he reached the bottom, he was immediately attacked by two skeletons that were down there. Hearing his friend in danger, Riardon hurried down the rope to come to his aid. Octavious went after him followed by Oceanus then myself. When I finally got to the bottom, the others had defeated the two skeletons along with two small, wooden tree creatures. I think they were called Twig Blights or something. Destan was looking pretty rough, so I used my Cure Wounds spell on him to heal some of his wounds. The others told me that the skeletons didn’t seem to be guards, but were instead gardeners of some sorts.

While we were composing ourselves after the battle, a bugbear and two giant rats came from the adjacent cave to attack us. Oddly enough, the bugbear called out to the rats by name when it gave them orders; one was called Grip and the other was Fang. We focused on the new enemies and defended ourselves. I took aim with my bow and finished off the bugbear along with the rat called Fang. Unfortunately, I lost an arrow as it went right down the rat’s throat when I killed it. There was no way I was going to waste my time cutting it open to get it, so I just left it there. After the enemies were all dead, I went over to the bugbear to search for anything useful, but I didn’t find anything. After that, we continued on down the cave the bugbear came from.

We kept alert as there could’ve been more enemies lying in wait further ahead. In the next large opening within the cave, we came across a tent by a campfire, two rat nests, and a bunch of crates that turned out to be a weapons stash. After making sure the area was safe, we began looking around. The others searched the camp while I remained on guard, keeping an eye out for anymore lurking hostiles. While Destan was searching, he found a box containing 54gp and 241sp. He didn’t know what to do with it, so he just gave it to me for safekeeping. I reluctantly took it and told him I was going to split it with the group later on.

From there, we continued on down a winding path that looked to be a natural cave formation. It just went on and on with nothing down that way, so we back-tracked and went back to the campsite we found earlier. It was getting late and we were all tired, so we decided to rest down there for a while. Before we all started to get settled in for bed, we came up with a schedule for watch which consisted of two-hour shifts. Octavious went first while I took the last shift; I can’t remember who took the two shifts in-between. While we were resting, I took out the box of coins Destan found earlier and split it amongst ourselves. I received a share of 11gp and 48sp, which was nice. I hadn’t had that much coin to spend on myself in a while. Most of the coin I got from the Order was spent on the basic necessities like food, travel, and lodging.

#

When it was my turn for watch duty, I was woken up by the person before me. I yawned then got up, taking position at the entrance to the cave to keep watch. Nothing happened during my shift, and soon enough, my companions all began waking up one after another. While they were waking up, I went back into the garden at the bottom of the well and looked around. There were two doors on opposite sides of the room, and I checked them both, finding them to be unlocked. I didn’t want to open them up just yet, so I waited for the others before doing so.

Once my teammates were all awake, I had them gather around me, and I told them about the doors. Not sure which way to go, Riardon picked one at random and opened it up. We followed him inside and found a large room with several doors on either side of us. In the center, there were tables with alchemy supplies, like mortars and pestles, as well as alchemical ingredients. It looked as if we had found the right place, or at least were close to it.

Riardon branched off from the main group and tried one of the doors in the room, finding some sleeping goblins inside. Seeing them there, he had a mischievous plan up his sleeve and let us know about it. He was going to enter the room and close the door behind him before using his Thunder Clap spell. He wanted to give the sleeping goblins a fright of their life. I rolled my eyes and didn’t object, so I nocked an arrow and prepared to fire at any enemies that escaped the room. As we prepared ourselves, Riardon went into the room, and after a few brief moments, a loud, thundering sound was heard. It reverberated throughout the ruins and I felt the ground shake slightly.

Just as the sound was heard, three goblins came out of a different room and attacked us. I didn’t think it was wise to just throw away our element of surprise like that before checking all the rooms, but it was too late; what was done was done. I immediately redirected my aim and loosed my nocked arrow at one of the new targets. We finished off the initial goblins followed by the new ones without any problems.

While the others checked the remaining rooms, I watched our backs to make sure no more goblins came by to surprise us. The others ran into a situation regarding goblins experimenting on a rat and Octavious getting pissed at them, but I wasn’t completely sure. I only heard about it after the fact. Riardon interrogated one of the goblins that was still alive, and it told him that their leader, Belak, was in a nearby grove. We still didn’t know who Belak was exactly and just assumed it was another goblin; we were highly mistaken. Once the situation with the dead rat and Octavious was more or less dealt with, we continued on.

We didn’t find any poison, or apples for that matter, so we had to keep looking. We gathered by the door on the far side of the room, and Oceanus volunteered to go first. He kicked open the door and entered into a hallway that intersected another. Right in the middle of the intersection was a female bugbear, having just come out of the room dead ahead of us. Upon seeing us coming through the door, she immediately attacked us. Octavious was right behind Oceanus and moved to assist him, getting the last couple hits on the bugbear.

For some reason, Octavious was mumbling to himself and apologizing profusely as he fought the female bugbear. I think I even caught sight of a few tears of regret, perhaps? It was rather peculiar of him, and I guess he wasn’t comfortable with using force on a lady, especially if it meant killing one. I guess it made sense; he seemed like quite the ladies’ man to me, but what did I know. It had been many years since I last saw him.

Anyway, after taking care of the minor interruption, we continued through the hallway. We first went to the door the female bugbear came out of. Riardon led the way inside and entered the room, but he didn’t find anything worthwhile.

Moving on to another hallway, I took the lead and checked another door, hearing voices inside. I notified the others and they gathered around me. Oceanus took point and barged into the room, finding three goblins inside. They immediately began to attack us after spotting us enter, and we engaged them in combat. I wanted to take one of them alive for questioning, but they were being too hostile and the others just wanted to kill them to get it over with. We took the three out easily and secured the room.

While we were walking around inside the room, a random pit opened up and Riardon fell right into it. The pit was seemingly bottomless and it closed up once Riardon was fully engulfed. We all only caught a glimpse of it and were completely helpless to help him. Destan was especially upset that he had lost his traveling companion, but there was nothing we could do. We just had to hope Riardon was going to be fine, wherever he was.

Leaving the room, we went down another hallway and tried one of the side rooms there. Inside, we spotted three skeletons carrying out some garden work. We didn’t feel like fighting them, so Oceanus closed the door while Destan froze it shut using his magic. With the skeletons contained, we moved on.

At the end of the hallway, we came upon a room with several statues including a large, marble red dragon statue. It startled me at first, but once I realized it was a statue, I was relieved. Even if it was a statue, I remained wary and kept my eye on it. The rest of the group followed me and began looking around. Next to the statue, we found another room, so we ventured onward.

We entered into a library of sorts, but it was all messy and disorganized. There were shelves of books and scrolls, but there were also several piles of books on the floor. Looking around the shelves for anything interesting, I found a spell scroll of Scorching Ray and an old tome of dragon lore. The cover of the tome of dragon lore was made from dragon skin, and the contents were all written in draconic, so I couldn’t read it. I just stashed everything in my bag to go through later. While we were looking around, Oceanus found a staircase leading downward, so once we were done with the library, we followed him down it.

There were corridors with dragon head statues in alcoves along the walls. We kept alert as we continued to follow Oceanus who was at the head of our group. We entered one of the rooms and found an empty study. I went first and made sure there were no enemies before giving the others the okay to enter. While everyone was looking around, I caught part of a conversation Octavious was having with Oceanus. I was rummaging through a desk when I heard Octavious tell Oceanus about some made-up holiday called “Handsmas”, or something. Octavious wanted to hold Oceanus’ hand for some reason and conjured up the ploy to do so. When Octavious asked me to back him up in saying that it was a real thing, I just nodded and grunted something, not fully paying attention to their conversation.

There was another door in the room that led to a side room, so I went over to check it out. There were voices coming from the other side, so I had Octavius and Destan head around to flank the room from another side. Based on the layout of the area, I recalled another door that most likely led into the room with the voices. Once we were in position, I kicked opened the door and began my attack. Just as I did, the other team entered as well, though, Oceanus lost his balance and almost fell over. Thankfully, Octavious rushed in and grabbed his hand to keep him on his feet, despite Oceanus’ wishes. We all quickly dispatched the four goblins there with me taking one out myself.

After taking a few moments to look around, we continued through a door and entered an underground forested area of sorts. It seemed we had arrived at the grove that previous goblins had mentioned. We remained alert but were attacked by a large group of Twig Blights, about ten of them. They came out from the brush and walls, surrounding us, but we fared all right. I was able to take out three of them while the others handled the rest. Once the fighting had ceased, I walked around and recovered all the arrows I shot.

We continued through the grove, and at the end, we came across a large, towering tree. It was rather evil looking and seemed to have some sort of fruit hanging from its branches. We assumed it was the Gulthias Tree everyone had been talking about. As we approached it, we saw three individuals up ahead of us by the base of the tree. There was an older human male with pale skin, a younger male wearing armor, and a female mage. We had no idea what they were doing there, but they weren’t goblins or kobolds, so we assumed that they were friendly, or at least, not hostile. We were wrong.

The older man in the center of the group noticed us approaching and confronted us, asking what we were doing there and what our intentions were. He mentioned his name was Belak and addressed the younger man beside him as Sir Brafford. I can’t remember what the woman’s name was.

Upon learning that he was Belak, we were immediately suspicious and remained defensive, but we tried to play it off like we didn’t know anything. If he was Belak, he was the root cause of everything, and we had to take him out to stop the poisoned apple operation. Octavious and I took the lead, playing ignorant as we talked with Belak and answered all his questions naively. When we got closer to him, we noticed that in addition to his pale skin, he had pitch-black eyes and pieces of tree bark on his exposed skin like armor. Whatever was going on, it seemed to be evil, and all his talk about the tree’s origin confirmed that.

While we were talking, a large frog came climbing down from the tree and sat in front of Belak. We asked what the frog’s name was, and he said its name was Frogoliath, his pet. We kept wasting time and began talking about the frog, trying to get him to lose his bearing.

Belak began to get annoyed then showed us the evil-looking fruit on the tree. He picked on and tried to make us eat it. It looked like an apple, except it was colored differently and very disgusting in appearance. We obviously weren’t going to eat it, but Octavious asked for one anyway. Belak tossed him one and urged him to take a bite. After delaying for too long and wasting even more of his time, Belak got fed up and had his servants attack us.

We drew our weapons and prepared to defend ourselves. Sir Brafford, the female mage, and Frogoliath attacked us head on while Belak remained in the rear, attacking from a distance. Octavious wanted to keep the frog alive, so we did our best not to cause it any mortal wounds. He managed to knock out Frogoliath, so it was still alive and just unconscious. I focused on Belak since he was furthest away while the others handled the rest. We held our own and defeated all the enemies; however, Octavious got injured and went down during it. I managed to get the final hit on Belak while the others took care of the other enemies. Belak was too dangerous to be taken alive, so I had to finish him off. Suddenly, three Twig Blights joined the fight and got on our flanks.

Once the fighting was over with, I hurried over to Octavious and got him back on his feet using some of my healing magic. Once he was okay, I used some magic on myself to heal my wounds. Before dealing with the evil tree, we took some time to loot the bodies of the fallen. I went over to Belak since I had finished him off and crouched down by his dead body. I pulled out my arrows from his corpse and began searching his person for anything useful. I found two vials of antitoxin and three potions of healing in his pockets and in the pouches on his belt. I handed out the healing potions to the others but kept the antitoxin for myself. While I was dealing with Belak’s corpse, Octavious searched Sir Brafford, and Destan searched the female mage.

When we were done with the bodies, we directed our attention to the evil Gulthias Tree. Destan and I walked up to it and gave it a closer inspection, wondering what we should do about it. I didn’t bother touching it or the fruit and kept my distance. It was a hazard to the common good, and it would’ve been too dangerous to be left alone. In the end, we figured to just destroy it, so I lit a torch and started setting it ablaze. I also went over to the lone apple that Destan had thrown earlier and crushed it beneath my boot, making sure to destroy all the seeds inside it as well.

After the tree was fully alight and burning, we left the area to make our way back to the well. We had solved the poison apple problem so there was no use sticking around. We left Frogoliath alone and figured he’d make it out just fine on his own. We climbed up the rope and made it out of the well, continuing to make our way to the ruins’ entrance. On the way there, we decided to check a few rooms we missed for anything worth taking. While we were doing that, Octavious went to the room that he had thrown the infected goblin from earlier in. When he opened the door, he saw that the infected goblin had turned into some sort of zombie and had killed the other two. He quickly put it out of its misery then closed the door. We found a weapon storeroom where I took a bundle of 40 goblin arrows to sell at Saltmarsh.

We were approaching the entrance when we came across a commotion happening that was blocking our path. There was a large crowd of goblin civilians panicking as they tried to get through the entrance. We presumed this was the same group that escaped from the marketplace, so we didn’t act hostile towards them. I took the lead and just pushed my way through the crowd, wanting to leave the ruins as soon as we could. When I broke through and got to the front of the group, I saw Meepo standing in the doorway and waving his slingshot around, threatening all the goblins before him. Once he saw us, he got scared and ran through the doorway to across the courtyard, taking up a position at the bottom of the stairs that led out of the chasm.

As Meepo moved out of the way, the goblins rushed the opening but were once again blocked by him. Meepo continued to harass the goblins while shooting at them with his slingshot. With nowhere to go, the goblins continued to panic in the small courtyard in front of the ruins. Still terrified and confused by what was going on, some fell off the sides of the cliff when they weren’t looking where they were going. Seeing what a mess Meepo was causing, I scolded him and grabbed the slingshot out of his hand to make him stop. I tossed the slingshot to Octavious and glared at Meepo, telling him to chill out with the goblin hate.

Having been disarmed of his weapon, Meepo cowered before me and began to cry slightly. He looked so pathetic and I almost felt sorry for the little guy. Unable to bear seeing him blubbering like that, I asked what he planned to do now. He said he wasn’t sure since he couldn’t go back to his tribe. Thinking about it, I asked him if he wanted to accompany us for the time being, and his face lit up for a moment. That way, he could at least get away from the ruins and decide on what to do later on. He agreed then said that he wanted to stay with us as a permanent member. I thought it over and said sure, figuring he could be trained and made a somewhat productive member of the group. I told him he’d stay on as my squire, and I’d look after him as long as he cooperated.

While I was talking with Meepo, Destan suddenly came running in and fell into the pit trap that the goblins had previously triggered. His sudden appearance startled us, and we all went over to see what happened. We helped him out of the pit, and he said he wasn’t in control of his body. He had snuck away from us and had been exploring another part of the ruins we hadn’t been to yet. Once he was out of the pit, we followed him back to the part of the ruins where he was poking around in.

We entered the room that Destan got charmed in, thinking the charm magic had dissipated, but we were wrong. Unfortunately, some of us got affected by whatever charmed Destan the first time he was in the room. Oceanus and I managed to prevent from getting charmed, but Octavious and Meepo weren’t. Oceanus grabbed Meepo by the tail while I took care of Octavious. I grabbed him by the hand and grappled him in an attempt to prevent him from running off. I continued to hold on to him until the charm wore off, and once it did, I kindly let him go.

Not wanting to get charmed again, Destan went over and destroyed the source of the charm magic, an old orb of some kind. While he was doing that, the rest of us took a break in the room and rested up a bit. After destroying the orb, Destan continued on his own while we continued to rest. He came across a trapped hallway that utilized arrows and got through it, safely making it to the other side. Octavious eventually got bored and followed after him, jumping across the hallway and avoiding the pressure plates that activated the arrow trap. Meanwhile, I stayed behind with Oceanus and Meepo.

Several minutes passed as I waited around for the others to return, but then I heard Destan shouting from down the hallway. I got up and went over to hear what he was shouting about. He said he and Octavious had engaged some flying creature in combat, and he wanted me to activate the arrow trap hallway so it couldn’t escape. I quickly looked around for something heavy and picked up my bag full of caltrops. I took the bag and placed it on the first pressure plate in the hallway, activating a wall of arrows that shot forth from one side and disappeared into holes in the other. I had hoped the creature hadn’t gotten by yet, but alas, it had. It was invisible and attacked me from behind, almost pushing me into the hallway of arrows. Thankfully, I wasn’t alone in the room and had some help.

As I fought the creature along with Oceanus, Octavious and Destan were fighting an enemy of their own where they were at. They had disturbed an old tomb and were fighting an ancient troll. Anyway, the creature I was fighting was some sort of insectoid creature that flew around, but Oceanus and I managed to kill it.

Shortly after Oceanus and I had defeated our enemy, Octavius and Destan had defeated theirs. They looted the room then told me to stop the arrow trap so they could get back to us. I removed the bag of caltrops which halted the arrows from firing. Once the hallway was safe to traverse through, Destan and Octavious regrouped with the rest of us. After dealing with the tomb and troll, we had had enough of exploring and wanted to return to Saltmarsh. We were all tired, so we went back to the front of the ruins.

The goblins were still around but were further ahead of us, huddled around at the top of the stone stairs. We went passed the courtyard and began climbing the stairs. Meepo was being rambunctious and continued to mock the goblins, so I had to tell him to knock it off. He just gave me a huff and remained silent for the time being.

When we got to the top of the stairs, the goblins saw us and began to panic, especially after seeing Meepo. They were trying to climb the rope that led out of the chasm, but they were having a hard time. Wanting to help out the goblins, Octavious moved ahead of us and picked up one of the smaller ones. Even though the goblin was trying to get free, Octavious took aim then hurled him upwards, trying to get the goblin to grab on to the rope. Unfortunately, the plan was flawed and not well thought out. The goblin flew through the air, completely missed the rope, and went over the side of the cliff, falling to its death. Octavious was mortified to say the least. Meepo began laughing and mocking the goblins, so I had to bop him on the top of the head to make him be quiet.

For some reason, Octavious wanted to keep going with his plan to help the goblins and picked up another one against their will. Having learned from his first attempt, the second time he tried, the goblin actually grabbed a hold of the rope and managed to climb all the way up. He continued to toss the goblins until all of them had gotten out of the chasm. I would’ve given up after killing the first goblin, but I guess Octavious had greater resolve than me.

Once the goblins were out of the way, we made our way up the rope and went back to the horses. Thankfully, the horses where right where we had left them, still tied up to the trees. We passed by Calcryx’s corpse and Meepo made sure to put himself as far from it as possible. When we got back to the horses, I went over to the one I mostly bought and had Meepo ride with me. Octavious took a horse while Destan and Oceanus took the other. Looking back towards the ruins one last time, we began riding back to Saltmarsh.


	6. Moving On

When we finally got back to Saltmarsh, we arrived in the afternoon and wanted to report back to Eliander. We left our horses in the stable and headed to the constabulary to see him. There was a guard outside the building, and we asked if Eliander was in. Unfortunately, he wasn’t, so we headed over to Octavious’ house to see if he was there. We got some odd looks from the townsfolk as Meepo was in our group and continued to follow closely along with us. I kept an eye on him to make sure he didn’t get into any trouble.

We arrived at the manor and knocked on the door before being greeted by one of the house servants. They told us that Eliander was home and led us inside, taking us to his study. When we met with him, we told him all about our adventure into the Dreadwood. He was surprised at how much we had to go through to take care of a seemingly miniscule problem. He thanked us for solving the issue and gave us 300gp with a bonus 200gp, meaning we each got 166gp. He also said he’d been busy as well and had talked with the Council, setting up a meeting with them tomorrow. They wanted to talk with us, and Eliander urged all of us to be there.

Since we were there, Eliander told us to have some dinner that his servants had prepared for us then freshen up. Some hot food sounded good, so I ushered Meepo out of the room and led him into the dining room. We all sat around the table in the dining room and ate together. Meepo was a handful as he had absolutely no table manners, but I did my best to keep him under control. Perhaps he was more than I bargained for, but he was kind of cute, like my own, little sentient lizard pet.

After dinner, the servants prepared baths for each of us and helped us clean up. I stayed with Meepo to make sure he took a bath and got washed properly. While the servants were cleaning him up, other servants took his clothes to get them washed. The servants tasked with cleaning Meepo struggled to scrub him as he was rowdy and uncooperative, splashing around all over the place in the tub. To get him to calm down, Octavious gave him some alcohol to mellow out with. After taking a few hearty gulps from the bottle Octavious had given him, Meepo finally settled down, and the servants were able to finish cleaning him up. I thanked Octavious, and he went to take a bath of his own.

When the servants were done washing Meepo, I dried him up using a towel then dressed him in his freshly cleaned clothes. I then carried him in my arms and brought him to one of the open rooms to sleep. He was out like a rock by then, so when the servants brought me to an available room, I tucked him into bed. I had one of the servants fetch me an empty bucket and placed it by his bedside, just in case. Once he was taken care of, I went to take my own bath.

The servants led me to the bath they’d prepared for me and tended to my every need. Once I stripped down and removed all my clothes, a servant took them to get cleaned while another scrubbed my body as I sat in the tub. It was quite relaxing, and it was a nice way to finish off the day. After I was fully clean, I thanked the servants and got dressed.

I went back to Meepo’s room to check on him and he was still doing fine. There was a chair in the corner of the room, so I decided to sit there and watch over Meepo as he slept. I wanted to make sure he didn’t throw up and choke or something. I got comfy in the chair and after a bit, I fell asleep.

#

The next morning, I woke up in the same chair. It wasn’t the most comfortable of sleeping arrangements, but at least it was warm and safe. I got up and went over to Meepo who was still asleep. He seemed to be fine, so I decided to get some food before he woke up. I was about to leave the room when I heard him stir and begin to wake up on his own. I sighed and went over to him to see how he was doing.

Meepo groaned out loud and said his head hurt, holding it with his little hand. I guessed he wasn’t too accustomed to alcohol and had a hangover. I went over to him and patted his forehead, but he just covered himself in the sheets and remained in bed. Just then, Octavious came by to see if we wanted to get some breakfast downstairs. I told him Meepo wasn’t feeling well, and Octavious came over to see what was up. He took out his flask and gave Meepo another sip of alcohol. Immediately after swallowing the bit of the drink, Meepo vomited into the bucket beside his bed. I just shook my head and told Octavious I’d be right behind him for breakfast. After Octavious left the room, I cleaned Meepo up, wiping his mouth with a clean towel that was nearby.

Seeing as how Meepo wasn’t going to move on his own, I wrapped him up in the clean sheets and carried him in a swaddle. With Meepo in my arms, I made my way downstairs and joined the others in the dining room for some breakfast. The manor’s servants had prepared a small feast for us, and the smells of all the delicious foods made my mouth salivate.

Just as I was about to set Meepo down on a chair at the table, there was an explosion from across the room. I turned just in time to shield Meepo in my arms as I took most of the force, which wasn’t too bad. Unfortunately, the blast overturned the table and chairs and completely ruined all the food that was prepared for us. I looked over to see Eliander with a book in his hands and Destan right in front of him.

Octavious and I hurried over to see what was going on, and we learned that Eliander was taking a look at one of Destan’s books. Destan had found a book in the ruins and gave it to Eliander to translate. Little did he know, the book was trapped with a rune, and when Eliander tried to read it, it triggered and exploded. Thankfully, no one was seriously harmed, but breakfast was ruined.

Since it was almost time for the meeting, we had to forgo breakfast for now. I picked up some scraps of food from the floor and wrapped it in a piece of cloth, saving it for later when Meepo woke back up. I was sure he wouldn’t mind it having been on the floor. I followed the others as they headed on over to the town hall to meet with the Council.

During the walk over, Meepo woke up and he was still feeling a bit under the weather. I took out some of the food I saved for him and fed him little by little. He munched on the food as I continued to carry him in my arms. He looked so serene and comfortable.

When we arrived at the town hall building, we saw that gallows had been recently erected, and there with two bodies with nooses around their necks. Sanbalet, the leader of the smugglers at the mansion, and the paralyzed female smuggler were hanging there, having been executed for their crimes by the City Watch. Seeing them there gave me some relief that the City Watch was still doing their job.

We moved passed the gallows and entered the town hall, being escorted by a couple of guards who were standing by there. They led us to the Council chambers, and we were brought before the Council. The Council was made up of five people that had significant influence within Saltmarsh. In addition to Eliander, there was an elderly human woman named Eda Oweland, a human man named Gellan Primewater, a dwarf woman named Manistrad Copperlocks, and a younger human man named Anders Solmor. The five of us (Oceanus, Octavious, Destan, Meepo, and myself) stood in the middle of the room in front of their table and listened to what they had to say.

The Council wanted us to investigate a potential problem that was brewing in the south of Saltmarsh near the Dunwater River. There was an enclave of lizardfolk that were gathering weapons and acting suspicious. The Council wanted us to figure out their intentions and make sure they weren’t getting ready to attack Saltmarsh. In exchange for the information, the Council was willing to pay us 700gp. Listening in on things, I was beginning to get concerned that I was skirting the limitations of my jurisdiction as a member of the OSF’s Scout Regiment. I wasn’t supposed to be hunting beasts and threats to the general public, not get involved in political matters. I had already done more than enough for Saltmarsh during my time back, so I figured I should leave before I got any more involved.

After leaving the Council chambers, I confronted the group and told them I wouldn’t be joining them on their journey. I explained my reasoning to them and they were understanding. Octavious was a bit bummed that I was leaving so soon after being away for so long, but I told him I’d return again someday. I looked down to Meepo who was walking on his own two feet. I gave him the option of coming with me or staying with the group. Since he was a short-sighted thinker and was munching on some of the food from Octavious’ house, he chose to stay with him and the others. I was a bit hurt, but I just nodded and said farewell. Octavious reassured me he’d make him part of the crew and look after him. I smiled and thanked him for that, wishing him luck with his ship and future endeavors. After saying goodbye to everyone, I gave my horse to Oceanus and headed back home.

Once I was home, I emptied my bags of whatever I didn’t want to bring with me, like the sack of caltrops and the furs I had. I left them in my room then went to say goodbye to my father before leaving Saltmarsh. I had a job to do and I’d most certainly be back in Saltmarsh again someday.


End file.
